Ripening of single-layer InGaAs islands on GaAs(001)

The present paper discusses our investigation of InGaAs surface morphology annealed for different lengths of time. After annealing for 15 min, the ripening of InGaAs islands is completed. The real space scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images show the evolution of InGaAs surface morphology. A half-terrace diffusion theoretical model based on thermodynamic theory is proposed to estimate the annealing time for obtaining flat morphology. The annealing time calculated by the proposed theory is in agreement with the experimental results.