Critical thickness of heavily boron-doped silicon-germanium alloys

In this work, the effect of boron concentration on the critical thickness of heavily boron doped Si1-xGex alloys (Si1-x-yGexBy) has been studied using Raman spectroscopy. The experimental results indicate that while boron decreases the stored strain energy, it can substantially increase the critical thickness for a given Ge concentration. The Si1-x-yGexBy critical thickness was calculated using two different models based on energy balance and kinetic considerations. The results show that the kinetic model provides a good estimate for the Si1-x-yGexBy critical thickness. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.