Computer Simulations Of The Role Of Surface Reconstruction, Stoichiometry And Strain In Molecular Beam Epitaxical Growth And Defect Formation

Abstract

The influence of the lattice mismatch strain on the growth mode and formation of defects is examined via computer simulations. Striking differences in the growth mode are suggested for compressive versus tensile strain in the overlayer. It is proposed and shown that the genesis of misfit induced defects is laid in the initial stages of growth at the coalescence boundaries of kinetically controlled clusters exceeding a critical size needed for epitaxical registry.