Ultimate Control of Strain Relaxation Processes in SiGe Layers

硅是数字革命的基石。它占据这个位置是因为它独特的化学和物理性质。电子和其他载流子在硅上移动的速度很低，传统上被视为可以通过减小器件尺寸来解决的问题。随着将硅器件缩小到纳米范围变得越来越困难，并且在商业规模上过于昂贵，新的沟道材料可以发挥关键作用，在未来保持硅电子器件的主导地位。例如，通过在硅中产生拉伸应变的SiGe平台上生长硅薄层，可以增加电子等的迁移率，从而改善器件速度和/或功耗。不幸的是，这些SiGe虚拟衬底的当前版本具有高密度的缺陷和差的表面形貌，使得它们不适合于商业生产。拟议的工作涉及开发的新的和激进的方法，在这方面前所未有的质量SiGe虚拟衬底的发展。

Silicon is the bedrock of the digital revolution. It occupies this position because of its unique chemical and physical properties. The low speed with which electrons and other current carriers move across silicon has traditionally been seen as a problem which can be solved by reductions in device size. As scaling of silicon devices into the nanometre regime becomes increasingly difficult and prohibitively expensive on a commercial scale, new channel materials could play a critical role that maintains the dominant position of silicon electronics well into the future. For example, the mobility of electrons, etc, may be increased, with consequent improvements in device speed and/or power consumption, by growing a thin layer of silicon on a SiGe platform which produces tensile strain in the silicon. Unfortunately current versions of these SiGe virtual substrates have high densities of defects and poor surface topography, making them unsuitable for commercial production. The proposed work concerns the development of novel and radical approaches to the development of SiGe virtual substrates of unprecedented quality in this respect.