ABSTRACT
The formation of the long-range compressive-tensile stress field in growing epitaxial films is discussed. Vicinal substrate orientations are classified for the first time in some types depending on existence of the principal physical limitations to grow perfect films in fully relaxed semiconductor systems. Some orientations in the vicinity of 001 and 111 singular ones are potentially suitable to obtain perfect thin semiconductor layers, if only two perpendicular arrays of misfit dislocations are introduced during the quasi-equilibrium process of plastic relaxation. The film thickness must be less than the distance between two neighbouring misfit dislocations in the relaxed system. For thick epitaxial films, the problem needs further investigation.
