The quantitative study by transmission electron microscopy of crystalline defects in ultra-thin film deposited on a substrate system was often complicated by the elastic interactions between short dislocation segments and the free surface of the film. It was shown, in the frame of isotropic elasticity and two-beam dark-field transmission electron microscopy, how to tackle the quantitative identification of short inclined segments of misfit dislocations located at a few tens of nanometers below a free surface. The method, which used repeatedly the concept of angular dislocation, was applied to some defects observed in a GeSi film deposited on a surface slightly deviating from a (001) silicon surface.

Inclined Misfit Dislocations in a Film/Substrate System. S.Neily, S.Youssef, A.Gutakovskii, R.Bonnet: Physica Status Solidi A, 2011, 208[8], 1896–901