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。电子和其他电流载流子在硅上移动的速度低，传统上被认为是一个可以通过减小器件尺寸来解决的问题。随着将硅器件扩展到纳米级变得越来越困难，并且在商业规模上变得昂贵，新的通道材料可能在保持硅电子产品在未来的主导地位方面发挥关键作用。例如，通过在硅中产生拉伸应变的SiGe平台上生长一层薄硅，可以增加电子的迁移率等，从而提高设备速度和/或功耗。不幸的是，这些SiGe虚拟基板的当前版本具有高密度的缺陷和较差的表面形貌，使其不适合商业生产。提出的工作涉及在这方面开发具有前所未有质量的SiGe虚拟基板的新颖和激进的方法。

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.