EN
The strain relaxation kinetics of ZnTe/CdTe and CdTe/ZnTe heterostructures grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy are studied by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction. The observed critical layer thickness is 5 monolayers for ZnTe/CdTe and less than 1 monolayer for CdTe/ZnTe. The relaxation is anisotropic. Dislocation core parameters and relaxation rate constants were determined using a kinetic model and assuming strain-dependent activation energy of dislocation movement.