High Resolution Measurement of the Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Semiconductor Multilayer Lateral Nanostructures

We measured the thermal expansion coefficient of a vertically stacked multi-quantum-well structure buried under a thick GaAs top layer before and after lateral patterning of the GaAs top layer. After patterning the thermal expansion coefficient of the whole multi-quantum-well structure differs from that of the planar structure by about 20%. Based on calculations in terms of methods of finite elements the effect is explained by the influence of the strain field originating from the bottom edges of the etched nanostructure. Due to the long range nature of this strain field the strain release within the individual quantum wells changes as a function from the distance from the valley.