Investigation of the high temperature behavior of strained Si _1-yC_y/Si heterostructures

authored by

G. G. Fischer, P. Zaumseil, E. Bugiel, H. J. Osten

Abstract

We report on x-ray diffraction measurements of the substitutional carbon content y in pseudomorphic Si_1-yC_y (y<0.02) layers grown on (100)-oriented silicon substrate. The samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy and investigated during post growth annealing in situ by an x-ray powder diffractometer. Despite the tensile strain in the 100-nm-thick layers and the high carbon supersaturation, the samples were stable up to 800°C. Beyond this temperature range, the substitutional carbon content decreased exponentially during isothermal annealing. This effect can be explained by the precipitation of the carbon and the nucleation and diffusion limited growth of SiC nanocrystals. Since no strain relief by the introduction of misfit dislocations was detectible, we conclude that contrary to the mechanism of strain relief in Si_1-xGe_x, in comparably strained Si _1-yC_y epilayers, the main high temperature process is precipitation.

External Organisation(s)

Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP)

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of applied physics

Volume

77

Pages

1934-1937

No. of pages

4

ISSN

0021-8979

Publication date

01.03.1995

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.358826 (Access: Closed)