Enhanced relaxation and intermixing in Ge islands grown on pit-patterned Si(001) substrates.
We compare elastic relaxation and Si-Ge distribution in epitaxial islands grown on both pit-patterned and flat Si(001) substrates. Anomalous x-ray diffraction yields that nucleation in the pits provides a higher relaxation. Using an innovative, model-free fitting procedure based on self-consistent solutions of the elastic problem, we provide compositional and elastic-energy maps. Islands grown on flat substrates exhibit stronger composition gradients and do not show a monotonic decrease of elastic energy with height. Both phenomena are explained using both thermodynamic and kinetic arguments.
Schülli
T U
TU
CEA Grenoble, INAC/SP2M, 17 rue des martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble, France.
Vastola
G
G
Richard
M-I
MI
Malachias
A
A
Renaud
G
G
Uhlík
F
F
Montalenti
F
F
Chen
G
G
Miglio
L
L
Schäffler
F
F
Bauer
G
G