Nanofabrication

The research is based on the long-standing expertise of the PDI in the field of molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) of III-V semiconductors, which permits the growth control on the atomic scale.

The growth mechanisms, self-organization effects, morphological instabilities, and the kinetics of interface formation and interface ordering are studied to realize artificial low-dimensional semiconductor systems and nanostructured materials.

The heteroepitaxy of dissimilar materials as well as interface- and defect-engineering are employed to generate new and distinct materials combinations and specific epitaxial orientations with tailored functionalities.

The close collaboration with the core research area Nanoanalytics is indispensable for the successful fabrication of nanostructures.

At present, the nanofabrication research covers a broad range of functional materials systems: low-dimensional GaAs-based heterostructures, metastable ternary and quaternary III-V compounds, and the combination of dissimilar materials by extreme heteroepitaxy.

A detailed understanding of the growth processes is necessary for the synthesis of these materials and nanostructures. They present an essential basis for all other core research areas of the PDI as well as for national and international collaborations.

Complementary to the nanofabrication by growth-controlled techniques, atom-by-atom manipulation by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy is used to assemble individual nanostructures with strict control of size, geometry, and composition. The objective of this approach is to explore and analyze quantum phenomena in structures, which consist of only a small number of atoms/molecules.