Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
We report the real-time in situ observation of heterointerface dislocation formation during the growth of lattice-mismatched widegap II-VI/GaAs heterostructures. Such observations were made by employing a near-normal incidence HeNe laser probe during epitaxial growth which generated both a laser reflection interferometry (LRI) signal as well as an elastically scattered laser light (ELLS) signal. We believe that the scattered light signal is generated at the II-VI/GaAs heterointerface based on the observation of a π phase difference between the LRI and the ELLS signals which were monitored simultaneously. We suggest, therefore, that the observed ELLS signal is a consequence of dislocation formation at the heterointerface which occurs due to plastic deformation in lattice-mismatched systems.