Coherency Strain of an Overgrown Island

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe lattice misfit strain in an overgrown island is considered to be accommodated by twodistinctive domains; a pure coherency domain (ε domain) and a domain of misfit dislocations (δ domain). By introducing such two different constituents, the model predicts the transition condition from a “single phase” state (ε phase) to a “two-phase mixture” (ε+δ) as a function of misfit strain. Further, as in the chemical thermodynamics of a binary alloy system, energy vs. misfit strain diagrams allow us to understand possible existence of various metastable states which may be associated with an overgrowth.