The molecular beam epitaxy of PbTe on BaF2 (111) was studied by means of ultra-high vacuum scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It was shown that the growth of PbTe was dominated by growth spirals which formed around threading dislocations that originated from growth on the 4.2% lattice-mismatched substrate. Due to dislocation annihilation, the threading dislocation density rapidly decreased with layer thickness.

G.Springholz, A.Y.Ueta, N.Frank, G.Bauer: Applied Physics Letters, 1996, 69[19], 2822-4