LOCALLY VARYING CHEMICAL-POTENTIAL AND GROWTH SURFACE PROFILE - A CASE-STUDY ON SOLUTION-GROWN SI(GE) SI/

We investigate by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force mi croscopy the development of the growth surface profile of Si0.97Ge0.03 /Si(001) grown from metallic solution near thermodynamic equilibrium. We show that sinusoidal surface undulations form to relax the mismatch strain elastically and result in a locally varying strain energy dens ity at the growth surface. This leads to a locally varying difference in Gibbs free energy and thus to locally different growth rates. At si tes where the strain energy is highest the layer dissolves. This disso lution in principle can be used to measure the local supersaturation o f the solute at the growth surface.