Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026

Theoretical Calculation and Experimental Verification for Dislocation Reduction in Germanium Epitaxial Layers with Semicylindrical Voids on Silicon
Published on: July 17, 2020
Unexpected dominance of vertical dislocations in high-misfit ge/si(001) films and their elimination by deep substrate
Anna Marzegalli1, Fabio Isa, Heiko Groiss
1L-NESS and Dept. of Materials Science, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 53, Milan, Italy. anna.marzegalli@unimib.it
Abstract:
An innovative strategy in dislocation analysis, based on comparison between continuous and tessellated film, demonstrates that vertical dislocations, extending straight up to the surface, easily dominate in thick Ge layers on Si(001) substrates. The complete elimination of dislocations is achieved by growing self-aligned and self-limited Ge microcrystals with fully faceted growth fronts, as demonstrated by AFM extensive etch-pit counts.

