A study was made of the formation of cuspidal pits during the growth of strained SiGe alloy layers at relatively high supersaturations. It was found that pit formation was directly linked to strain in the alloy layer. An heterogeneous formation mechanism was proposed in which the pits were assumed to arise from stress-driven surface diffusion that was associated with a localized initial perturbation of the buffer layer surface.

K.M.Chen, D.E.Jesson, S.J.Pennycook, T.Thundat, R.J.Warmack: Applied Physics Letters, 1995, 66[1], 34-6