Strain Relaxation in MBE-Grown Si1-xGex/Si(100) Heterostructures by Annealing

Abstract
Strain relaxation in MBE-grown Si1-x Ge x /Si(100) strained-layer heterostructures by postgrowth annealing has been investigated using X-ray diffraction and Nomarski microscopy. The extent of the strain relaxation is found to be dependent on Ge composition and annealing temperatures. The strain relaxation model proposed by Dodson and Tsao is applied to our experimental data and good agreement is obtained.