Microscopy of stress-induced morphological development and dislocation nucleation during semiconductor epitaxy

摘要

A Z-contrast image of a Si(sub 0.5)Ge(sub 0.5) layer, in which 2 monolayers Ge marker layers were inserted during growth by molecular beam epitaxy, showed cusp-like features. The stress concentration at the cusp tip will continue to accelerate rapidly; there must be some mechanism to relieve this stress, and the most obvious solution is the emission of a dislocation half loop at the cusp tip.