The ability of misfit dislocations to generate nano-structures in the bulk of SiGe/Si hetero-epitaxial systems was demonstrated. It was shown that dislocation slip which originated from compositionally graded SiGe layers could produce a range of low-dimensional structures, including nano-wires, nano-dots and mosaic superlattices. The formation of such nano-structures was achieved by parallel processing, using a simple 2-step cycle which included the growth of layered planar structures, and post-growth annealing.

S.J.Shiryaev, F.Jensen, J.W.Petersen, J.L.Hansen, A.N.Larsen: Applied Physics Letters, 1997, 71[14], 1972-4