Improving step bunch ordering by tuning the interplay between thermodynamic and kinetic factors*

Strain-induced self-organized step-flow growth provides an effective method for fabricating quantum wire arrays. Here we report development of a modified step-flow growth model accounting both thermodynamic step-step interaction due to misfit strain and kinetic step-edge barriers. We show that improved step bunch ordering can be achieved by tuning the interplay of thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Computer simulations show that the best step bunch ordering occurs when the two factors drive the average bunch size to correspond to an integer number of steps in the bunch.