Dislocation density reduction by isoelectronic impurities in semiconductors

Abstract

A new mechanism for dislocation density reduction by isoelectronic doping is proposed. It is shown that the strain introduced by randomly distributed dopants lowers the vacancy supersaturation impeding dislocation formation via vacancy condensation. Trends in dislocation reduction through codoping with isoelectronic and electrically active impurities are discussed for the case of GaAs doped with indium.