Radius of curvature in MBE grown heterostructures

Misfit stress in MBE grown heterostructures causes these structures to bend. Former theories on semiconductor wafer curvature have been re-examined and errors that have persisted in the literature have been corrected. We present an approach to describe the wafer curvature of strained layer systems using basic physical equations. A description of the position of the neutral plane for epitaxial heterostructures is presented. Wafer curvature has been studied using X-ray diffraction and the results are in good agreement with the theory.