An investigation was made of the InGaAs strained channels of high electron-mobility heterostructures having In contents of 70 or 80%, and channel thicknesses ranging from 3 to 14nm. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the existence of 2 regimes of strain relaxation in the strained InGaAs channels. One was an anisotropic rippling of the channel surface at low mismatches, and the other was dislocation generation which occurred as the layer thickness and mismatch increased.

Stress Relaxation by Surface Rippling and Dislocation Generation in Mismatched Channels of InGaAs/InAlAs/InP High Electron-Mobility Transistors F.Peiró, A.Cornet, M.Beck, M.A.Py: Applied Physics Letters, 1999, 74[25], 3818-20