Previous work shows the benefits of using, vicinal substrates but there is currently a gap in the experimental studies of the effects under different MBE growth conditions. To fully realize controllable growth while using a vicinal substrate, we systematically explore and discuss the mechanism behind the dependence of the optical characteristics of MBE grown InAs QD ensembles with different growth parameters on a vicinal substrate. In addition, the potential improvement in optical quality with a vicinal substrate over an on -axis is demonstrated and an investigation into applying a two-step growth procedure on a vicinal substrate is conducted. Photoluminescence of the grown QD ensembles shows that increasing V/III ratio increased wavelength and decreased FWHM. Decreasing substrate temperature increased wavelength and FWHM. Utilizing the two-step growth method increased both wavelength and FWHM with increased interruption time. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.