Enhanced strain relaxation in Si/Ge<i>x</i>Si1−<i>x</i>/Si heterostructures via point-defect concentrations introduced by ion implantation

Abstract

It is shown that strain relaxation during annealing of Si/GexSi1−x/Si heterostructures is significantly enhanced if the strained GexSi1−x layers are implanted with p (B) or n (As) type dopants below the amorphization dose. Comparison of strain relaxation during in situ annealing studies in a transmission electron microscope between unimplanted and implanted structures reveals that the latter show residual strains substantialy below those for unimplanted structures. We propose that this enhanced relaxation is caused by increased dislocation nucleation probabilities due to the high point-defect concentrations arising from implantation.