中文摘要：

综述了对自组装量子点形态和生长过程所做的探讨和研究。介绍了关于量子点成核和形态的热力学理论、量子点生长过程的计算机模拟及Ge／Si（001）和InAs／GaAs（001）量子点生长和形态的实验观察。鉴于InAs／GaAs（001）体系的复杂性，把对InAS量子点的观察和研究分为“微观”和“宏观”两种。微观研究对象包括量子点原子尺度上的结构、量子点表面小晶面的晶体学的精确取向等，这些性质可能受热运动的影响比较大，在一定程度上是随机的，它们代表了量子点生长行为的复杂性；宏观研究的对象是指量子点密度、纳米尺度形态等大量粒子统计意义上的集体行为，这些性质和行为可能更具有实际意义。因此作者认为，目前研究量子点生长和形态更为有效的方法应该是探寻以量子点宏观行为所表征的简单性。重点介绍中科院半导体所半导体材料重点实验室最近所做的对InAs／GaAs（001）量子点生长过程的实验观察。结果表明，在一般生长条件下（富As，500℃，0．1ML／s），InAS量子点成核和生长应该都是连续的，没有经历被普遍认为的不连续（一级）相变。按照作者的观察，把InAs量子点成核看作是连续（二级）相变更为贴切。

英文摘要：

A brief review of the efforts made in the past more than ten years to understand the growth and configurations of the self-assembled quantum dots （QDs） in molecular beam epitaxy （MBE） is given. In particular, the theoretical study on the nucleation and configuration of QDs from the point of view of thermodynamics, the Monte Carlo Kinetics simulations of the QD growth process, the experimental observations on the growth processes of QDs in both Ge/Si （001） and InAs/GaAs （001） systems are concisely presented. Due to the remarkable complexity in InAs/GaAs （001） system, the characteristics and behaviors of InAs QDs are tentatively classified into ＂microscopic＂ and ＂macroscopic＂. The first class includes the atomic-scale QD structural properties, the exact crystallographic orientation of the facets in a quantum dot, and etc. These microscopic properties may be of random to some extent, more sensitive to thermal fluctuations, and represent the complexity in InAs QD. The second class refers to the QD areal density, the QD shape measurable on the nanometer-scale, and etc. These so-called macroscopic properties should be representative of the collective behaviors of a huge amount of particles, and universal in the sense of statistics to some extent. Therefore, from the view of the authors, paying more attention to the macroscopic properties of InAs QDs may be a more efficient way for investigation. The experimental observations on the evolution of InAs QDs under the ordinary growth conditions （As-rich, 500℃, 0.1 ML/s） performed most recently in the laboratory of Semicon- ductor Institute were described, according to which the nucleation and growth of InAs QDs should be continuous without any discontinuous phase transition as usually referred to in literature. According to the authors, the nucleation of InAs QDs may starts as a continuous （second order） transition from a critical state.