Small increments of AsH3 partial pressure MK-4827 nmr by increasing V/III ratio to 35, 37, 40, and 50 result in rapid increases of well-developed QDs. The QD density increases nearly by five orders of magnitude, from 5 × 105 cm−2 (V/III ratio = 30) to 1.2 × 1010 cm−2 (V/III ratio = 50). Also, the base diameters decrease correspondingly from 90 to 46 nm. Phase II. By further increasing the V/III ratio from 50 to 140, the densities

of QDs increase slowly from 1.2 × 1010 cm−2 to 3.8 × 1010 cm−2, and the corresponding base diameters decrease from 46 to 29 nm. Also, we notice that the uniformity of QDs gets worse and the bimodal size distribution of QDs gets more obvious with increasing V/III ratio. Phase III. The density Selleckchem LDN-193189 of QDs decreases significantly by one order of magnitude when the V/III ratio is increased up to 200, and then increases slowly again with higher V/III ratio. During this phase, the average base diameters also undergo abrupt change, increasing to 121 nm and then decreasing to 90 nm. To explain the above complicated behaviors of QDs, several competing mechanisms should be taken into account. Phase I is in the margin of 2D to 3D transition which is reasonable to conclude from the AFM images;

therefore, a minor increase of coverage can facilitate the growth changing from 2D to 3D, thus resulting in significant change of QDs. As the AsH3 partial pressure increases, the rate of the chemical Selleckchem PCI-32765 reaction of TMIn+AsH3→InAs+3CH4 is increased by providing more available AsH3 molecules, leading to the increasing coverage of InAs. As a result, the QD density increases dramatically. A similar behavior of increasing dot density

with increasing coverage can be found in many other reports [9, 15, 16]. Meanwhile, the increased AsH3 partial pressure can limit the migration length of In adatoms; therefore, the base diameter tends to decrease. Accordingly, in phase I, with the increasing of V/III ratio, the QD densities increase dramatically and the corresponding QD average diameters decrease. In phase II, the chemical reaction rate as well as the InAs coverage keeps increasing due to the increasing AsH3 partial pressure, but the increase of the growth rate is limited by the fixed TMIn GBA3 flow rate. Furthermore, phase II is beyond the 2D to 3D transition; therefore, the QD density increases with decreasing rate. Similarly, the average base diameters decrease due to the limited In migration length with increasing AsH3 partial pressure. In addition, considering the kinetics of MOCVD growth, the initial formation of QDs is not in the thermal equilibrium; thus, increasing coverage also leads to the development of small QDs into energetically favorable large-sized QDs. In our case, the bimodal size distribution starts occurring at V/III ratio of 50 and gets more obvious with increasing V/III ratio. In phase III, the QD density decreases significantly at V/III ratio of 200.