Control of MBE surface step-edge kinetics to make an atomically smooth quantum well

Summary form only given. On an atomic scale, all quantum wells grown by conventional MBE have rough barrier-well interfaces with step-edges, pits, or islands one or more monolayers (MLs) high. Cleaved-edge overgrowth is MBE on the atomically flat [110] surface exposed by an in situ cleave so that there exists no roughness on this bottom interface. The top surface of the overgrown [110] film, however, generally has large roughness due to the required GaAs [110] growth conditions. Here we control the molecular step-edge kinetics on the upper interface by growing on the smooth [110] cleave an integral number of GaAs MLs and then initiating a growth-interrupt-anneal. We characterize the structures using AFM and photoluminescence.