Theoretical study of dislocations in highly mismatched III-V epitaxial heterostructures

Using the tight-binding molecular dynamics (TBMD) method, we study the atomistic properties of strain included dislocations, both 60/spl deg/ and 90/spl deg/ types, in medium and highly mismatched III-V semiconductor heterostructures, like InGaAs/GaAs, InP/GaAs and InP/Si systems. The atomic diffusion in the semiconductor interface is investigated via vacancy mechanism of diffusion using the path probability method (PPM). The critical layer thickness for the generation of the misfit dislocations is also estimated and compared with the experimental results.