Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The process of dislocation nucleation from point defect condensations in Si(Ge) is discussed. Based on the assumption that during the dislocation nucleation stage, the dominant factor in the configurational energy is the number of dangling bonds per point defect incorporated, rather than the more commonly recognized factor of strain energy, it is possible to model the dislocation nucleation process. In order to minimize the number of dangling bonds, point defects would condense into row configurations elongated in <110>, called intermediate defects (IDC), and then the IDCs would evolute into undissociated 90° edge –, 60°, and Frank partial dislocations.