Strain relaxation mechanisms in compressively strained thin SiGe-on-insulator films grown by selective Si oxidation

Abstract

We report on strain relaxation mechanisms in highly compressive-strained (0.67%–2.33% biaxial strain), thin SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) structures with Ge atomic fraction ranging from 0.18 to 0.81. SGOI layers (8.7–75 nm thickness) were fabricated by selective oxidization of Si from compressively strained SiGe films epitaxially grown on single crystalline Si-on-insulator (SOI) layers. During high temperature oxidation annealing, strain relaxation occurred due to both intrinsic stacking fault (SF) formation and biaxial stress-driven buckling of the SiGe layers through viscous flow of the overlying and underlying SiO2 layers. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction were performed to confirm the simultaneous occurrence of these two strain relaxation mechanisms. The results indicate that ∼30% of the observed strain relaxation can be attributed to formation of intrinsic SFs and the remaining strain relaxation to stress-driven buckling of the SiGe layers. In addition, cross-sectional TEM images show that some of the SFs and layer buckling roughness appears to be spatially correlated.