By using twist wafer bonding, thin (100)GaAs layers were transferred onto (100)GaAs handling wafers in order to fabricate so-called compliant universal substrates. Hetero-epitaxial InP and InGaAs films were then grown onto the GaAs twist-bonded layers. Twisted and untwisted grains of the epitaxial film, with diameters ranging from 0.1 to several μ, without threading dislocations were observed under transmission electron microscopy. Twisted grains grew on the twist-bonded layer, while untwisted grains grew directly onto the GaAs handling wafer and were caused by pinholes in the twist-bonded GaAs layer. It was suggested that lateral limitation of the epitaxial growth of grains on the thin twisted GaAs layer, caused by the presence of pinholes, reduced the density of threading dislocations in the strain-relaxed film and might be a mechanism for the observed low densities of threading dislocations in the lattice-mismatched epitaxial films.

'Compliant' twist-bonded GaAs substrates P.Kopperschmidt, S.Senz, R.Scholz, U.Gösele: Applied Physics Letters, 1999, 74[3], 374-6