Island formation by stress induced diffusion on the surface of a very thin layer epitaxially stressed on a substrate

Island formation by stress-induced surface diffusion of an epitaxially stressed thin film has been studied by considering the possibility of dislocation nucleation when the thickness of the film is of the order of the Matthews critical thickness. Using some well-known results on stress induced surface diffusion and on the development of Grinfeld instabilities, island formation on the surface has been predicted