Dislocation filters in GaAs on Si

Cross section transmission electron microscopy has been used to analyse dislocation filter layers (DFLs) in five similar structures of GaAs on Si that had different amounts of strain in the DFLs or different annealing regimes. By counting threading dislocation (TD) numbers through the structure we are able to measure relative changes, even though the absolute density is not known. The DFLs remove more than 90% of TDs in all samples. We find that the TD density in material without DFLs decays as the inverse of the square root of the layer thickness, and that DFLs at the top of the structure are considerably more efficient than those at the bottom. This indicates that the interaction radius, the distance that TDs must approach to meet and annihilate, is dependent upon the TD density.