K. Fujinaga, TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY OBSERVATION OF THE EARLY GROWTH-STAGES OF SIGE GROWN ON SI SUBSTRATES BY CONVENTIONAL LOW-PRESSURE CVD, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 142(7), 1995, pp. 2341-2346
TEM was used to observe lattice defects in Si0.75Ge0.25 islands and in
the film subsequently grown by conventional LPCVD at 680 degrees C on
(100)-oriented and 0.5 degrees-misoriented Si substrates without any
buffer layers. Large isolated islands grew on the oriented substrate.
The lattice-mismatched islands, which contained the defects originated
from the surface contaminants, released their strain energy by genera
ting lattice-misfit dislocations and thus the thick film was relaxed.
Reducing the growth temperature decreased the size of the islands, whi
ch enabled a strained film to be grown. Many coalesced islands grew on
the misoriented substrate at 680 degrees C. No misfit dislocations we
re observed in the thick film. This was thought to be due to the incre
ase in the nucleation sites depending on the step density of the subst
rate surface. In contrast to the undoped alloy, the highly B-doped all
oy grew coherently on the oriented substrate at 680 degrees C. The hig
h B-doping seems to reduce lattice strain so that the alloy growth ini
tiates in a two-dimensional growth mode.