The effect of the initial growth mode, upon the dislocation structure of ZnSe epilayers which had been grown onto GaAs(100) by molecular beam epitaxy, was investigated. When the initial growth occurred via the formation and coalescence of 3-dimensional islands, the threading dislocation density was found to be an order of magnitude higher, and the misfit dislocation lengths much shorter, than for the case where the initial growth occurred via a 2-dimensional layer-by-layer mechanism. The differences were explained in terms of dislocation formation at island coalescence boundaries during 3-dimensional growth.

S.Guha, H.Munekata, F.K.LeGoues, L.L.Chang: Applied Physics Letters, 1992, 60[26], 3220-2