The interaction of dislocations on parallel glide planes in a strained epitaxial layer was investigated numerically. It was found that, if 2 dislocations approached closely enough, they would form an immobile bound complex. If a third dislocation then came near to such a complex, it would knock one of the pair forwards and proceed to bind with the other. The repetition of this simple process led to the growth of an elaborate network structure in the substrate. The network geometry which was predicted by the calculation was remarkably similar to previously unexplained dislocation structures which had been observed in transmission electron microscopic images.

K.W.Schwarz, F.K.LeGoues: Physical Review Letters, 1997, 79[10], 1877-80