Some thermodynamic aspects of self-assembly of arrays of quantum dots

We have studied the relative adhesion (the wetting) of dislocation-free three-dimensional islands belonging to an array of islands to the wetting layer in Stranski-Krastanov growth mode. The array has been simulated as a chain of islands in 1+1 dimensions placed on top of a wetting layer. In addition to the critical size of the two-dimensional islands for the 2D-3D transformation to occur, we find that the wetting depends strongly on the density of the array, the size distribution and the shape of the islands.