The strain relaxation of In0.1Ga0.9As on GaAs (110) grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The strain relaxation of In0.1Ga0.9As layers on GaAs (110) was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction. TEM observation showed that strain relief in the (110) interface is initially dominated in the [001] direction by the formation of 60° type dislocations and stacking faults via {111}〈011〉 slip systems for layer thicknesses up to approximately 200 nm. As the layer thickness increases, {113}〈011〉 slip systems became active and the resultant misfit dislocations contribute strain relief in both [001] and [11̄0] directions. The efficiency of strain relief by the different misfit dislocations is discussed.