Effects of grown-in stress on the metastable solid solubility limits in Sb implanted Ge0.1Si0.9 alloys
Abstract
Solid phase epitaxy and metastable solubility limits of implanted Sb atoms have been investigated in stressed and stress-relaxed Ge0.1Si 0.9 thin films. For a 5×1015 cm-2 Sb implantation, complete recrystallization is achieved for both samples after a 60 min furnace annealing at 600°C. In the case of stress-relaxed alloy, 91% of the Sb atoms are located at the substitutional sites of the Ge-Si matrix. For the stressed sample, however, only 60% of the Sb atoms occupy the substitutional sites of the matrix. A defect-free regrown layer is observed for the relaxed sample, while twins are formed near the location of the Sb concentration peak in the stressed Ge-Si. The maximum solid solubilities of Sb are estimated to be 1.6×1021 and 8×1020 cm-3 for the relaxed and the stressed Ge0.1Si0.9, respectively.