Strong and periodic 1D in-plane modulation obtained by MBE on (001) GaAs vicinal surfaces

The lateral atomic organization of group III atoms (here Ga and Al) by atomic steps on GaAs substrates slightly misoriented with respect to (001) is far from being perfect. Nevertheless low-disordered in-plane potential modulation of large amplitude (10–50 meV) and short periodicity (< 40 nm) can be obtained. The electronic properties observed in quantum structures with a lateral potential modulation will be shortly reviewed. Before this, different growth phenomena limiting the organization are discussed and some post-growth AFM studies of the step array are presented. The terrace distribution is analyzed using thermodynamical equilibrium models on one hand and Monte Carlo simulation of the crystal growth on the other hand. An anisotropic Schwoebel barrier at the step edge is considered in order to best explain the measurements.