Materials issues in strained solid-phase epitaxial growth of Si1−xGex

Abstract

Recent advances in modern microelectronics materials technology have depended on the creation of a heterojunction between electronically dissimilar materials (i.e., different band gap) that have like crystal structures but different lattice parameters. With the advent of Si1−xGex-on-silicon heterojunction technology, a host of new and interesting materials issues must be resolved. These challenges require improved understanding of amorphous/crystalline interface morphological stability during strained solid-phase heteroepitaxial regrowth, the mechanisms of defect introduction, and the kinetics of the amorphous-to-crystalline transformation. All of these processes are directly affected by the level of misfit strain energy in the system during the transformation.