Modeling of dislocations in an epitaxial island structure

Abstract

We present calculations of dislocations in CoSi2 islands grown by reactive epitaxy on a Si(111) substrate. The stress fields due to the lattice mismatch are calculated with standard FEM techniques, and are converted into a structured, multi-level and multi-grid stress table that is imported into the PARANOID code to study the dislocation dynamics. Single and multiple dislocations in the island have been simulated, and the predicted patterns are strikingly similar to those observed experimentally. By looking at the growth behavior of very small loops we also find that dislocation-loop nucleation becomes easier as the islands become larger, and that thick islands are dislocated at smaller sizes than thin ones. These results are also in good agreement with experimental observations. We conclude that current modeling techniques are sufficient to treat this type of problem at a useful level of accuracy.