Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T13:41:38.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Identification of Shape Transitions in Coherent Ge/Si Islands Using Transmission Electron Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Chuan-Pu Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
William L. Henstrom
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
David G. Cahill
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
J. Murray Gibson
Affiliation:
Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratories, Argonne, IL 60439
Get access

Abstract

As a consequence of strain relaxation, Ge coherent islands on Si(001) substrates evolve to different shapes as islands grow. By measuring the size and the strain simultaneously in a large population of individual islands using two simple and robust plan-view transmission electron microscopy-based techniques, we can identify island shapes easily because island shape is a function of strain. We briefly introduce the mechanisms of these two techniques. We then show that there is a metastable shape of Ge islands involved in the shape transition between pyramids and domes. The strain relaxation changes discontinuously as islands grow from pyramids to the metastable form and then finally to domes indicating that the shape transition between pyramids and domes is first order. We also show that the shape of this metastable island is a truncated dome and the faceted planes are {103}.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Eaglesham, I. D.J. and Cerullo, M., Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, p. 1943 (1990).Google Scholar
2.Medeiros-Ribeiro, G., Bratkovski, A.M., and Williams, R.S., Science 279, p. 353 (1998).Google Scholar
3.Abstreiter, G., Schittenhelm, P., Engel, C., Silveira, E., Zrenner, A., Meertens, D., and Jager, W., Semicond. Sci. Technol. 11, p. 152 1 (1996).Google Scholar
4.Medeiros-Ribeiro, G., Kamins, T.I., Ohlberg, D.A.A., and Williams, R. S., Phys. Rev. B 58, p. 3533 (1998).Google Scholar
5.Liu, C.P., Miller, P.D., Henstrom, W.L., Gibson, J.M., submitted to J. Microscopy (1999).Google Scholar
6.Miller, P.D., Henstrom, W. L., Gibson, J.M., Huang, Y., Zhang, P, Kamins, T.I.. Basile, D.P. and Williams, R.S., Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, p. 46 (1999).Google Scholar
7.Miller, P.D., Liu, C.P., and Gibson, J.M., submitted to Ultramicroscopy (1999).Google Scholar
8.Liu, C.P., Gibson, J.M., Cahill, D.G., Kamins, T.I., Basile, D.P., and Williams, R.S., submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (1999).Google Scholar
9.Kukta, R.V., and Freund, L.B., J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 45, p. 1835 (1997).Google Scholar