Dynamical x-ray reflection at terraces in epitaxial layers

Terrace formation in semiconductor epitaxial layers has been postulated to cause lattice bending, which ought to be observable by x-ray diffraction. Consideration of dynamical effects of x-ray reflection, both at the terraces and from a distorted crystal lattice, shows that diffraction effects by far outweigh the effects oflattice bending. For a given liquid phase epitaxial GaAs layer on a GaAs substrate, the lattice bending is estimated to be less than 105 rad. PACS numbers: 61.l0.Fr, 68.55. + b