Misfit dislocation gettering by substrate pit-patterning in SiGe films on Si(001)

Journal Article · Mon Jul 02 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4733479· OSTI ID:22089266

Grydlik, Martyna; Groiss, Heiko; Brehm, Moritz; Schaeffler, Friedrich ^[1]; Boioli, Francesca; Montalenti, Francesco; Miglio, Leo ^[2]; Gatti, Riccardo; Devincre, Benoit ^[3]

---

1. Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstrasse 69, A-4040 Linz (Austria)
2. L-NESS and Department of Material Science, University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
3. LEM, CNRS/ONERA, Chatillon Cedex (France)

We show that suitable pit-patterning of a Si(001) substrate can strongly influence the nucleation and the propagation of dislocations during epitaxial deposition of Si-rich Si{sub 1-x}Ge{sub x} alloys, preferentially gettering misfit segments along pit rows. In particular, for a 250 nm layer deposited by molecular beam epitaxy at x{sub Ge} = 15%, extended film regions appear free of dislocations, by atomic force microscopy, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy sampling. This result is quite general, as explained by dislocation dynamics simulations, which reveal the key role of the inhomogeneous distribution in stress produced by the pit-patterning.

• OSTI ID: 22089266
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 101; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
DEPOSITION
DISLOCATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
FILMS
GERMANIUM ALLOYS
GETTERING
LAYERS
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
NANOSTRUCTURES
SAMPLING
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON ALLOYS
SIMULATION
SPECTROSCOPY
STRESSES
SUBSTRATES
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY