Monte Carlo simulations were made of misfit relief in strained epitaxial layer interfaces. Emphasis was placed on its effect upon the distribution of dislocation spacing, due to the reaction of 60 dislocations to form edge dislocations. When there were no edge dislocations, the distribution was a decaying exponential function. However, as the edge dislocation density increased, a peak appeared in the distribution. The position and magnitude of this peak depended upon the proportion of edge dislocations which was found within the misfit dislocation array. Account was also taken of the effect of the experimental resolution. It was found that the results were consistent with detailed experimental measurements of dislocation spacing distributions, and were important because the energy of an array increased significantly when the dislocation spacings were non-periodic.

G.MacPherson, P.J.Goodhew, R.Beanland: Philosophical Magazine A, 1995, 72[6], 1531-45