Experiments have shown that a native oxide layer on the surface of a strained SiGe epilayer caused an order of magnitude increase in dislocation velocities during annealing over those observed in atomically clean samples and during crystal growth. This behavior was explained herein by stress-assisted dislocation kink nucleation at the oxide/epilayer interface. Finite element models were used to estimate the stress local to steps at this interface due to both intrinsic and thermal expansion stresses, and dislocation theory was used to determine the resulting increase in single kink nucleation.

Enhancement of Dislocation Velocities by Stress-Assisted Kink Nucleation at the Native Oxide/SiGe Interface. E.A.Stach, R.Hull: Applied Physics Letters, 2001, 79[3], 335-7