The effect of the interface orientation upon the strain state and structural properties of epitaxial layers was theoretically investigated for semiconductor films which were grown onto (001) misoriented substrates. The analysis showed that, for 2 intersecting misfit dislocation arrays, the film energy depended strongly upon the type of screw component of the Burgers vector. The energy was much lower if, for both mutually perpendicular misfit dislocation arrays, the components were left-hand or right-hand screws. The identification of these components for 60º misfit dislocation arrays in a (001) interface was suggested to explain some experimental results on deteriorated epitaxial film structures. If plastic relaxation occurred in quasi-equilibrium, the many vicinal (001) orientations could be classified into 2 types. In one case, the conditions for threading dislocation formation were present, but the long-range stress field did not appear. In the other case, the probability of threading dislocation formation was small but the field was present.

Film Quality Effects Associated with the Formation of Misfit Dislocations at Semiconductor Interfaces. E.M.Trukhanov, A.V.Kolesnikov: Applied Surface Science, 1998, 123-124, 669-73