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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Mechanisms and phenomena of strain relaxation at bi-material interfaces have been studied for over half a century. The details, however, and limiting kinetics, thermodynamics and mechanics are still being sorted out - particularly for large misfit systems. Three techniques are required to accurately portray strain distributions during and after epitaxial growth: RHEED, TEM and SACP. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is used to measure the lattice parameter during growth. Both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron channeling pattern (SACP) analysis are necessary to identify the defects and the strain distribution. These techniques have been applied to NiAl and FeAl grown by MBE on GaAs with a thin AlAs buffer layer. It is shown that both island and layer by layer growth can occur with the corresponding defects being remarkably similar in character. From a combined Moiré, HREM and computer simulation, the dislocation character is assessed. Both <100> dislocations from half-loops or island edges may occur providing only partial relaxation of the film-substrate systems. The impact of the remaining elastic strain distribution on kinetic measurements of dislocation velocities is discussed.