| Semiconductor nanostructures are scientifically and technologically attractive because their electronic properties, including quantum and mesoscopic transport and quantum confinement are likely to play a key role in the operation of extremely fast, high density, nanoelectronic computers. This dissertation presents two ;STM direct writing of Ge quantum dots on Si is shown to be temperature dependent, giving more compact, uniformly sized dots at elevated temperatures ;On the contrary, the strain-mediated self-assembled growth process is shown to simultaneously generate large ensembles of ;The self-assembled growths have been performed in a custom designed UHV-STM/UHV-CVD tool which combines process and measurement into one controlled environment, and has achieved spatially-resolved spectroscopic measurements of atomically clean quantum dots. Limitations in both spatial and energy resolution are considered, and further optimization is required before direct spatial mapping of a nanostructure's electronic wave functions can be achieved. |
