During the relaxation of strained layers, gliding threading dislocations could be blocked by pre-existing misfit dislocations which were perpendicular to the glide direction. It was suggested that this process was less significant when the layer was grown on an off-cut (vicinal plane) substrate. A statistical analysis of simple cases, and a computer simulation of complex cases, was presented. This showed that there should be no difference between the blocking behaviours of exact or off-cut substrates.

A Model of Dislocation Blocking and its Application to the Development of Misfit Dislocation Arrays. P.J.Goodhew: Philosophical Magazine A, 2000, 80[9], 2099-108