Stress-induced layer-by-layer growth of Ge on Si(100)

Several experiments have found that Ge initially grows layer by layer on the Si(100)2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1 surface, up to a thickness of 3 atomic layers. Further growth occurs via islands. Here, model calculations show that layer-by-layer growth is stabilized for up to 3 layers because it reduces the strain energy associated with the surface dimerization.