Remarkable Strength Characteristics of Defect-Free SiGe/Si Heterostructures Obtained by Ge Condensation

Thomas David*, Kailang Liu, Sara Fernandez, Marie Ingrid Richard, Antoine Ronda, Luc Favre, Marco Abbarchi, Abdelmalek Benkouider, Jean Noël Aqua, Matthew Peters, Peter Voorhees, Olivier Thomas, Isabelle Berbezier

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We compare the morphological and structural features of SiGe membranes fabricated by three different processes: direct deposition of Si0.5Ge0.5 on Si(001) nominal substrate, direct deposition of Si0.5Ge0.5 on silicon on insulator, and deposition of SiGe with low Ge concentration on silicon on insulator followed by Ge enrichment by condensation. We show that the formation of fully strained Ge-rich layers free of defects with a flat surface is possible only by the two-step epitaxy-condensation process. We demonstrate that the condensation-based process enables the total inhibition of the morphological instability, together with the hindering of dislocations for critical thickness much greater than those commonly obtained by direct deposition. Those behaviors could be explained by the injection of self-interstitials in the Ge-rich layers during condensation. Such remarkable properties could be generalized to many other systems using a similar condensation process.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)20333-20340
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C
Volume120
Issue number36
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 15 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • General Energy
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Surfaces, Coatings and Films

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