The dislocation density in bulk GaAs crystais (up to 4 mm thick) grown by liquid-phase electroepitaxy (LPEE) is found to be significantly reduced (by as much as a factor of 20) relative to that in the substrate. This reduction takes place when the thickness of the growing crystal exceeds a critical value of 50-70 pm. It is accompanied by a formation of misfit dislocation arrays identified by transmission electron microscopy in the interface region between the substrate and grown crystals. These findings suggest that the reduction of the dislocation density is caused by a small but finite lattice mismatch between the growing epitaxial-quality crystal and the relatively inferior quality melt-grown substrate. Dislocations which propagate from the substrate into the LPEE crystal are forced by the misfit stress to move laterally forming misfit dislocations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.