Interactions of Moving Dislocations in Semiconductors with Point, Line and Planar Defects

We demonstrate that strained GeSi/Si heterostructures act as a model system for the study of the interaction of propagating dislocations with point, line and planar defects. In such heterostructures, the effective stress acting on a propagating dislocation may be varied from tens of MPa to of order 1 GPa, and the length of the propagating dislocation segment may be varied from nm to hundreds of nm. Results are presented from the interaction of strain-relieving dislocations with GeSi free surfaces, with point defects generated by ion implantation, and with other dislocations.