Controlled self-assembly of semiconductor quantum dots using shadow masks

Abstract
An effective method for controlling the position and number of self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) grown by molecular-beam epitaxy has been developed. Epitaxially grown shadow masks are used to realize selective area growth, which exploits different incidence angles of the molecular beams. We applied this method to control the position and number of self-assembled CdSe QDs in a ZnSe matrix. Bright cathodoluminescence shows the presence of regularly distributed ensembles of QDs and that single QDs can be reliably grown.