Elastic strain relaxation in free-standing SiGe/Si structures

We have investigated elastic strain relaxation, i.e., strain relaxation without the introduction of dislocations or other defects, in free-standing SiGe/Si structures. We fabricated free-standing Si layers supported at a single point by an SiO2 pedestal and subsequently grew an epitaxial SiGe layer. The measured strain relaxation of the SiGe layer agrees well with that calculated using a force-balance model for strain sharing between the SiGe and strained Si layers. We report strained Si layers with biaxial tensile strain equal to 0.007 and 0.012. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.