Surface Stress, Morphological Development, and Dislocation Nucleation During Strained-Layer Epitaxy

Abstract
Utilizing Marker layer experiments and Z-contrast imaging, we have observed the formation of surface cusps during SixGe1−x alloy growth. The formation of cusps can be understood in terms of stress-driven surface diffusion, and we consider the large stress build-up at the cusp tip as a potential source for the nucleation of misfit dislocations.