In situ monitoring of strain relaxation during antimony-mediated growth of Ge and Ge_1-y C_y layers on Si(001) using reflection high energy electron diffraction

authored by

H. J. Osten, J. Klatt

Abstract

Ge and Ge_0.99C_0.01 layers were grown pseudomorphically on Si(001) and investigated during growth with reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). We show that the RHEED technique permits dynamic monitoring of the in-plane lattice spacing of the growing layer by measuring the distances between diffraction features during growth and applying an appropriate mathematical algorithm. The onset of plastic relaxation in these layers as a function of growth temperature was investigated. Lower growth temperature increases the critical layer thickness. We estimated an overall activation energy of around 0.1 eV. Adding 1% carbon to the Ge layer delays the onset of relaxation. But the Ge_1-yC_y layer does not behave identically to a pseudomorphic Ge film with an artificially reduced strain. It should rather be considered as a new material.

External Organisation(s)

Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP)

Type

Article

Journal

Applied physics letters

Volume

65

Pages

630-632

No. of pages

3

ISSN

0003-6951

Publication date

01.08.1994

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.112253 (Access: Open)