Enhancement of dislocation velocities by stress assisted kink nucleation at the native oxide/SiGe interface
- Resource Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Source
- Applied Physics Letters; 79; 3; Other Information: Journal Publication Date: July 16, 2001; PBD: 15 Feb 2001
- Subject
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE ANNEALING
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DISLOCATIONS
NUCLEATION
OXIDES
STRESSES
THERMAL EXPANSION
SILICON ALLOYS
GERMANIUM ALLOYS
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
MATHEMATICAL MODELS DISLOCATIONS STRAIN RELAXATION HETEROSTRUCTURES SILICON GERMANIUM SIGE
DISLOCATIONS STRAIN RELAXATION HETEROSTRUCTURES SILICON GERMANIUM SIGE
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0003-6951
Experiments have shown that the presence of a thin native oxide layer on the surface of a strained SiGe epilayer causes an order of magnitude increase in dislocation velocities during annealing over those observed in atomically clean samples and during crystal growth. This behavior is explained herein by stress-assisted dislocation kink nucleation at the oxide/epilayer interface. Finite element models are used to estimate the magnitude of stress local to steps at this interface due to both intrinsic and thermal expansion stresses, and dislocation theory is used to determine the resulting increase in single kink nucleation.