Very Thick Coherently Strained GexSi1−x Layers Grown in a Narrow Temperature Window

Abstract

ABSTRACTStrain relaxation of GexSi1−x layers is studied as a function of growth temperature. Extremely thick coherently strained layers whose thicknesses exceed more than fifty times of the critical thicknesses predicted by Matthews and Blakeslee's model were successfully grown by MBE. There exits a narrow temperature window from 310 °C to 350 °C for growing this kind of high quality thick strained layers. Below this temperature window, the layers are poor in quality as indicated from RHEED patterns. Above this window, the strain of the layers relaxes very fast accompanied with a high density of misfit dislocations as the growth temperature increases. Moreover, for samples grown in this temperature window, the strain relaxation shows a dependence of the residual gas pressure, which has never been reported before.