Strain relaxation of epitaxial SiGe layers on Si(100) improved by hydrogen implantation

We propose a new method to fabricate strain relaxed high quality Si(1-x)Ge(x) layers on Si by hydrogen implantation and thermal annealing. Hydrogen implantation is used to form a narrow defect band slightly below the SiGe/Si interface, During subsequent annealing hydrogen platelets and cavities form, giving rise to strongly enhanced strain relaxation in the SiGe epilayer. As compared to thermally induced strain relaxed Si-Ge epilayers, the hydrogen implanted and annealed samples show a greatly reduced threading dislocation density and a much higher degree of strain relaxation (90%). We assume that the hydrogen induced defect band promotes strain relaxation via preferred nucleation of dislocation loops in the defect band which extend to the interface to form misfit segments. The samples have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.