Nanostructures and methods of making nanostructures having self-assembled nanodot arrays wherein nanodots are self-assembled in a matrix material due to the free energies of the nanodot material and/or differences in the Gibb's free energy of the nanodot materials and matrix materials.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of, and incorporates herein by reference in its entirety, the following United States Provisional Application: U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/430,210 filed Dec. 2, 2002.
The invention relates to the production of a stacked structure of planes of islands of a first semiconducting material encapsulated in a second semiconducting material on a substrate, comprising alternate deposition of planes of islands of a first semiconducting material and encapsulation layers of a second semiconducting material, the planes of islands of the first semiconducting material being made at an optimum growth temperature and at an optimum precursor gas partial pressure to result in a stacked structure for which the optical properties enable production of optoelectronic components to optically interconnect integrated circuits. The stacked structure is made on a plane of islands of a third semiconducting material called the sacrificial plane encapsulated in a fourth semiconducting material, the islands of the sacrificial plane being made under growth conditions that can result in high densities of small islands, in other words at a temperature below the optimum growth temperature and/or at a precursor gas partial pressure greater than the optimum partial pressure.