Interfacial stability and misfit dislocation formation in InAs/GaAs(110) heteroepitaxy

摘要

A comprehensive atomic-scale study is presented of the mechanical behavior of the InAs epitaxial film, the interfacial stability with respect to misfit dislocation formation, and the film surface morphology in InAs/GaAs (110) heteroepitaxy. If a GaAs buffer layer of ten-monolayer thickness is used in the epitaxial growth, a transitionis perdicted from a coherent to a semicoherent interface consisting of a regular array of edge interfacial misfit dislocations at a critical film thickness of six monolayers. A second transition to a semicoherent interface consisting of a completely developed network of perpendicularly intersecting misfit dislocations is predicted at thicknesses greater than 150 monolayers. Our simulation results are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data.