Abnormal growth and relaxation of a GaSb film on GaAs(001) is studied
by transmission electron microscopy. Irregularly shaped and abnormally
large GaSb islands are relaxed by 60-degrees misfit dislocations. Hav
ing the same sign, these dislocations form a regular array which has b
een rarely observed in (001)-grown large-lattice-mismatched semiconduc
tor heterostructures. The GaSb film consequently becomes tilted with r
espect to the substrate to remove the long-range stress field resultin
g from the vertical edge component of the Burgers vector of the 60-deg
rees dislocations. The measured angle of tilt agrees reasonably with t
he absence of a long-range stress field. The vicinality of the substra
te does not necessarily induce 60-degrees dislocations, but it promote
s 60-degrees dislocations to be a particular sign.