Hydrogen gettering and strain-induced platelet nucleation in tensilely strained Si0.4Ge0.6/Ge for layer exfoliation applications

We show that tensilely strained epitaxial layers getter interstitially dissolved hydrogen and accelerate the nucleation of platelets. Both of these result in subsurface crack propagation leading to surface blistering and eventual exfoliation of a H+-implanted semiconductor surface. In this work, a strained Si0.4Ge0.6 layer was used to enhance the exfoliation kinetics of relaxed Ge/Si1−xGex/Si virtual substrates by gettering hydrogen and providing a preferential nucleation site for platelets. Using platelet morphology and strain relaxation data, a nucleation and growth model was formulated accounting for both chemical and strain energy contributions to the free energy of platelet formation, revealing two kinetically limited growth regimes for platelets in tensilely strained Si0.4Ge0.6 films. Low-temperature (