The accommodation of misfit at {100} heterojunctions in III–V compound semiconductors by gliding dissociated dislocations

The formation of dislocations at lattice-mismatched (100) semiconductor heterojunctions can be understood as a relaxation process involving the low-temperature plastic deformation of the epilayer. A simple model for this deformation shows that the main features of these dislocation arrays at the heterojunction can be predicted. It is shown that the dissociated nature of the dislocations and their $\text{α}\text{β}$ character must both be taken into account. The type of dislocations involved in this relaxation process depends on whether the epilayer is initially in compression or tension.