In this growth process a new strain relief mechanism operates, whereby the SiGe epitaxial layer relaxes without the generation of threading dislocations within the SiGe layer. This is achieved by depositing SiGe on an ultrathin silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate with a superficial silicon thickness less than the SiGe layer thickness. Initially, the thin Si layer is put under tension due to an equalization of the strain between the Si and SiGe layers. Thereafter, the strain created in the thin Si layer relaxes by plastic deformation. Since the dislocations are formed and glide in the thin Si layer, no threading dislocation is ever introduced in to the upper SiGe material, which appeared dislocation free to the limit of the cross sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis. We thus have a method for producing very low dislocation, relaxes SiGe films with the additional benefit of an SOI substrate.

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Strain compensation is an important aspect of heterostructure engineering. In this letter, we discuss the synthesis of pseudomorphic Si1−yCy and Si1−x−yGexCy alloy layers on a silicon (100) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy using solid sources and the controlled strain compensation that results from the introduction of the ternary system. The introduction of C into substitutional sites in the crystal lattice is kinetically stabilized by low-temperature growth conditions (400–550 °C) against thermodynamically favored silicon-carbide phases. The lattice constant in Ge is about 4% larger than in Si, whereas in diamond it is 52% smaller. Consequently, the compressive strain caused by 10.8% Ge in a pseudomorphic Si1−xGex alloy can be compensated by adding about 1% carbon into substitutional lattice sites of the film assuming Vegard’s law of linear change of the lattice constant in the alloy as a function of the composition. Using x-ray diffraction, we observe a partial strain compensation in Si0.75−yGe0.25Cy alloys on Si depending on the amount of carbon in the layer, with no observable misfit dislocation generation. The Raman spectra from Si1−yCy and Si1−x−yGexCy alloys show a substitutional carbon vibration mode at about 600 wavenumbers. No indication of silicon-carbide precipitation is observed in transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.