Hydrogen-mediated quenching of strain-induced surface roughening during gas-source molecular beam epitaxy of fully-coherent Si0.7Ge0.3 layers on Si(001)

Fully-coherent Si0.7Ge0.3 layers were deposited on Si(001) by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (GS-MBE) from Ge2H6/Si2H6 mixtures in order to probe the effect of steady-state hydrogen coverages θH on surface morphological evolution during the growth of compressively strained films. The layers are grown as a function of thickness t at temperatures, Ts=450–550 °C, for which strain-induced roughening is observed during solid-source MBE (SS-MBE) and deposition from hyperthermal beams. With GS-MBE, we obtain three-dimensional (3D) strain-induced growth mounds in samples deposited at Ts=550 °C for which θH is small, 0.11 monolayer (ML). However, mound formation is dramatically suppressed at 500 °C (θH=0.26 ML) and completely eliminated at 450 °C (θH=0.52 ML). We attribute these large differences in surface morphological evolution primarily to θH(Ts)-induced effects on film growth rates R, adatom diffusion rates Ds, and ascending step-crossing probabilities. GS-MBE Si0.7Ge0.3(001) growth at 450 °C remains two dimensional, with a surface width 〈w〉<0.15 nm, at all film thicknesses t=11–80 nm, since both R and the rate of mass transport across ascending steps are low. Raising Ts to 500 °C increases R faster than Ds leading to shorter mean surface diffusion lengths and the formation of extremely shallow, rounded growth mounds for which 〈w〉 remains essentially constant at ≃0.2 nm while the in-plane coherence length 〈d〉 increases from ≃70 nm at t=14 nm to 162 nm with t=75 nm. The low ascending step crossing probability at 500 °C results in mounds that spread laterally, rather than vertically, due to preferential attachment at the mound edges. At Ts=550 °C, the ascending step crossing probability increases due to both higher thermal activation and lower hydrogen coverages. 〈w〉(t) increases by more than a factor of 10, from 0.13 nm at t=15 nm to 1.9 nm at t=105 nm, while the in-plane coherence length 〈d〉 remains constant at ≃85 nm. This leads, under the strain driving force, to the formation of self-organized 3D {105}-faceted pyramids at 550 °C which are very similar to those observed during SS-MBE.

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