Misfit dislocations in epitaxy

This article on epitaxy highlights the following: the definition and some historical milestones; the introduction by Frenkel and Kontorowa (FK) of a truncated Fourier series to model the periodic interaction at crystalline interfaces; the invention by Frank and van der Merwe (FvdM)—using the FK model—of (interfacial) misfit dislocations as an important mechanism in accommodating misfit at epilayer-substrate interfaces; the generalization of the FvdM theory to multilayers; the application of the parabolic model by Jesser and van der Merwe to describe, for growing multilayers and superlattices, the impact of Fourier coefficients in the realization of epitaxial orientations and the stability of modes of misfit accommodation; the involvement of intralayer interaction in the latter—all features that impact on the attainment of perfection in crystallinity of thin films, a property that is so vital in the fabrication of useful uniformly thick epilayers (uniformity being another technological requirement), which also depends on misfit accommodation through the interfacial energy that function strongly in the criterion for growth modes, proposed by Bauer; and the ingenious application of the Volterra model by Matthews and others to describe misfit accommodation by dislocations in growing epilayers. This article is based on a presentation in the symposium “Interfacial Dislocations: Symposium in Honor of J.H. van der Merwe on the 50th Anniversary of His Discovery,” as part of the 2000 TMS Fall Meeting, October 11–12, 2000, in St. Louis, Missouri, sponsored under the auspices of ASM International, Materials Science Critical Technology Sector, Structures.