Pd. Moran et al., Experimental test for elastic compliance during growth on glass-bonded compliant substrates, APPL PHYS L, 76(18), 2000, pp. 2541-2543
Highly mismatched films (In0.44Ga0.56As, 3% mismatch) grown well beyond the
ir critical thickness (to 3 mu m) on GaAs glass-bonded compliant substrates
exhibit surfaces four times smoother and strain distributions twice as nar
row as films grown simultaneously on conventional GaAs substrates. The comp
liant substrates consist of a thin (similar to 10 nm) GaAs template layer b
onded via a borosilicate glass to a mechanical handle wafer. The improvemen
t of highly mismatched films grown well beyond their critical thickness on
compliant substrate structures is commonly modeled in terms of an elastic p
artitioning of strain from the film to the thin (similar to 10 nm) single-c
rystal template layer. The present study is a direct test for this mechanis
m of elastic compliance. A comparison is reported of the strain in 92 nm In
0.09Ga0.91As films and 76 nm In0.03Ga0.97As films grown simultaneously on c
onventional GaAs substrates and the compliant substrates responsible for th
e improved structural quality of In0.44Ga0.56As films. Elastic partitioning
of strain from the mismatched film to the 10 nm template layer prior to th
e onset of misfit dislocations is not observed for films grown on these gla
ss-bonded compliant substrates. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0
003-6951(00)03318-0].