Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Planar defects have been detected by transmission electron microscopy in silicon epitaxial layers that have been grown from Ga solutions below 500 °C. According to fringe contrast analysis, this defect can be modelled by a plane of Ga atoms within the Si lattice. This plane forms during crystal growth due to local preferential incorporation of Ga atoms at crystallographically defined sites, that occur repetitively in the trains of monomolecular growth steps at the liquid/solid growth interface.