We report growth of nanodots on strained GaAs surfaces using a scanning tunneling microscope at room temperature. The 5-nm-thick GaAs strained layer was epitaxially deposited over InGaAs quantum dots by molecular beam epitaxy. Nanodots of various shapes were observed on the surface when high-bias voltages at various feedback currents were pulsed at few hundred milliseconds at room temperature. The resultant dots were elongated along the (1 (1) over bar0) direction and had dimer rows of a 2 x 4 reconstruction. The analysis of the resultant morphologies suggested that the diffusion on the tensile strained GaAs surface is anisotropic, faster along the dimer row direction. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.