“…Interestingly, extensive prior work showed that the application of different forms of mechanical stress during SPEG could alter the morphology of the evolving growth interface thus favoring or impeding mask-edge defect formation (Olson et al, 2006;Rudawski et al, 2006Rudawski et al, , 2008aRudawski et al, , 2009bShin et al, 2001a,b,c). Specifically, when uniaxial tension was applied along the in-plane [110] direction during SPEG, the impingement of the two portions of the growth interface was retarded, which resulted in defect-free growth (Olson et al, 2006;Rudawski et al, 2006Rudawski et al, , 2008aRudawski et al, , 2009b. In contrast, when uniaxial compression was applied along the in-plane [110] direction during SPEG, the impingement of the two portions of the growth interface was enhanced, which resulted in defective growth (Olson et al, 2006;Rudawski et al, 2006Rudawski et al, , 2008aRudawski et al, , 2009b.…”