STRAIN RELAXATION MORPHOLOGIES OF IIA-FLUORIDES AND LEAD-CHALCOGENIDELAYERS ON SI(111)

The thermal mismatch strain introduced by the different thermal expans ion of fluorides, IV-VI materials and the Si(111) substrate is relieve d by glide of dislocations in the primary (100)(110) glide system with glide planes inclined to the surface. The morphology of the resulting straight slip steps is revealed with atomic force microscopy (AFM) fo r the fluorides and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for the IV-VI materials. The number of observed dislocation step lines agrees with t he calculated thermal strain relaxation.