A study was made of pure edge misfit dislocations in epitaxial structures which had been grown by using various techniques. A model was proposed for the formation of pure edge misfit dislocations from parallel 60 misfit dislocations that pre-existed at the interface. The common dislocation node for these initial 60 misfit dislocations, that arose as a result of dislocation reactions in the crossing points of the misfit dislocations, was a starting point for pure edge misfit dislocation generation. Initial misfit dislocations with suitable Burgers vectors could be located at the interface, up to 0.5 apart. The process of pure edge misfit dislocation propagation was accompanied by movement of the dislocations from the interface (up into the epilayer or down into the substrate) on inclined {111} planes. Merging of shifted segments produced a segment of pure edge dislocation. The behavior of pure edge misfit dislocations was explained in terms of dislocation mobility within the epitaxial layer at the growth temperature. Progressive propagation of the dislocation reaction along the initial 60 misfit dislocations led to the formation of a long pure edge misfit dislocation.

V.I.Vdovin: Journal of Crystal Growth, 1997, 172, 58-63