Interaction of cavities with misfit dislocations in SiGe/Si heterostructures

Consequences of the strong, short-range attractive interaction between cavities and misfit dislocations are examined in SiGe/Si heterostructures. When He is implanted at the SiGe/Si interface, either in situ during epitaxial growth or by post-growth treatment, cavities form and locate on the misfit dislocation cores, The misfit dislocations are no longer straight lines extending over several microns, but form a network with jogs and intersections at the cavities. The He-implanted cavity layer enhances thermal relaxation of the strained alloy and may increase the achievable degree of relaxation by lowering dislocation energies.