Effect of asymmetric strain relaxation on dislocation relaxation processes in heteroepitaxial semiconductors

Abstract

The effect of asymmetric interfacial strain configurations upon the generation of misfit dislocation arrays in lattice mismatched epitaxy is considered. For example, elastic strain relaxation for Si1−xGex/Si(110) films is uniaxial, assuming glide on {111} planes as expected for the diamond cubic system, which leads to asymmetric strain relief. Here, we extend our previously developed relaxation model for generation of dislocation arrays in SiGe/Si, by accounting for how the different energetics of asymmetrically strained films affect the kinetics of the relaxation process. Similarly, non-polar III-nitride epitaxial films have asymmetric strain from the outset of growth due to the different c/a lattice parameter ratios. In both systems, the asymmetric strain is represented by an additional term in the misfit dislocation applied stress equation. In SiGe/Si(110), a simple elasticity analysis of the strain produced by the uniaxial array of dislocations predicts that the relaxation orthogonal to the dislocation line direction occurs at a faster rate than predicted by purely biaxial strain relief due to the contributions of the strain parallel to the dislocations. This difference is because the strain parallel to the dislocation line directions continues to resolve stress onto the misfit dislocations even as the orthogonal strain is minimized. As a result, the minimum strain energy is predicted to occur for a dislocation spacing, which produces tensile layer strain in the orthogonal direction. Such tensile strain may modify the (opto)electronic properties of a Si, Ge, or GeSi epilayer but is only predicted to occur for advanced stages of relaxation. These asymmetric derivations are applicable to any thin film system where strain is not strictly biaxial.