Influence of dislocations on diffusion-induced nonequilibrium point defects in III-V compounds

Diffusion of elements migrating via a substitutional-interstitial mechanism in III-V compounds may induce nonequilibrium concentrations of native point defects. It has generally been assumed in the literature that, in the presence of dislocations, the point defects approach their thermal equilibrium concentrations. In contrast, it will be shown here that in III-V compounds the most favorable concentration a perturbed mobile species in one sublattice can reach corresponds to that of establishing a local equilibrium relation with another mobile species in the other sublattice if long-range transport of the defects to crystal surfaces is absent.