A theoretical investigation was made of the effects of an ultra-thin inserted Si layer upon misfit dislocation nucleation. It was found that the inserted layer did not significantly change the equilibrium critical thickness for dislocation nucleation, but it did increase the energy barrier to dislocation nucleation at the surface. Thus, a dislocation had to surmount an energy barrier of about 6.5eV/nm in order to nucleate at the surface of Ge/Si. This energy barrier increased to about 8eV/nm if a 2-monolayer Si layer was inserted near to the surface. It was concluded that dislocation nucleation would be kinetically delayed by the insertion of the Si layer.

M.Ichimura: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1996, 35[2-5B], 1996