Near-equilibrium strain relaxation and misfit dislocation interactions in PbTe on PbSe (001) heteroepitaxy

Abstract
Strain relaxation of PbTe layers on PbSe (001) by misfit dislocation formation is shown to take place near equilibrium without kinetic barriers. A comparison of the experimental data with different strain relaxation models shows that mutual dislocation interactions are of crucial importance for the strain relaxation process. This results in faster relaxation than predicted by the models for noninteracting dislocation arrays.