Onset of incoherency and defect introduction in the initial stages of molecular beam epitaxical growth of highly strained InxGa1−xAs on GaAs(100)

Direct evidence for interplanar relaxation in islands at the initial stages of strained epitaxy is presented using molecular beam epitaxically deposited In0.5Ga0.5As on GaAs(100). Concomitant existence of atomic displacements in the substrates to unexpectedly large depths of ∼150 Å is found. In incoherent islands, defects are found to be introduced symmetrically near the island edges.