Structural perfection of heteroepitaxial silicon layers grown on sapphire by sublimation-source molecular beam epitaxy

Structurally perfect, single-crystal silicon layers have been grown on \((1\overline 1 02)\) sapphire by sublimation-source molecular beam epitaxy. Electron and x-ray diffraction data demonstrate that silicon-on-sapphire epitaxy occurs at substrate temperatures from 550 to 850°C. As the thickness of the layers decreases from 1.0 to 0.2 μm, their structural perfection degrades. In the layers grown at 600°C, the density of nucleation sites in the initial stages of growth is ≃ 5 × 109 cm−2.