Experimental studies of dopant diffusion in strained Si and SiGe

Abstract

Summary form only given. It is of crucial importance for modeling and simulation of physical processes, that reliable experimental information exists against which the models can be tested. Epitaxially grown semiconductor heterostructures are ideal systems for producing such information as a number of parameters can be varied such as e.g. chemical composition, and size and type of biaxial strain (tensile or compressive). The Si/SiGe epitaxial system constitutes such a system. We have over the past 10 years studied atomic diffusion in the Si/SiGe epitaxial system using molecular-beam epitaxially grown structures containing well-defined narrow distributions of the tracer impurity or isotope under investigation. The atomic profiles were measured using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and the structural quality of the samples and their possible strain relaxation by misfit dislocations during heat treatment were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).