Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol.237, 1599-1602, 2002
Energetics in the growth mechanism of semiconductor heteroepitaxy
We phenomenologically investigate the growth behavior in lattice-mismatched heteroepitaxy. We focus on the critical thickness of misfit dislocations (MDs) in Volmer Weber (VW) and Stranski-Krastanov (SK) modes. Calculated results show that critical thickness in VW mode is much smaller than that in SK mode. This is because energy loss in MD formation in VW islands is smaller than that in SK islands due to the absence of wetting layers during VW growth. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.