Hybrid surface roughening modes during low-temperature heteroepitaxy: Growth of fully-strained metastable Ge{sub 1-x}Sn{sub x} alloys on Ge(001)2x1

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 1999 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.15993· OSTI ID:20217823

Desjardins, P ^[1]; Spila, T ^[1]; Guerdal, O ^[1]; Taylor, N ^[1]; Greene, J E ^[1]

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1. Materials Science Department, Coordinated Science Laboratory, and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1101 West Springfield Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)

Fully-strained single-crystal metastable Ge{sub 1-x}Sn{sub x} alloys were grown on Ge(001) up to their critical epitaxial thickness values t{sub epi}(x) in order to probe surface roughening pathways leading to heteroepitaxial breakdown during low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy under large compressive strain. All films with x>0.09 have comparable roughnesses while films with x<0.09 are considerably rougher with larger lateral feature sizes. Roughening rates increase with increasing x for films with x>0.09 due to a new hybrid relaxation path which only becomes accessible under high strain as kinetic roughening provides surface oscillations on lateral length scales that allow bulk relaxation through strain-induced islanding at growth temperatures where it could not otherwise proceed. (c) 1999 The American Physical Society.

• OSTI ID: 20217823
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 60; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GERMANIUM ALLOYS
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
ROUGHNESS
STRAINS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
THIN FILMS
TIN ALLOYS