Strain relaxation and void reduction in SiC on Si by Ge predeposition

In this work, 120 nm cubic SiC layers have been grown on Si (111) by SSMBE, depositing 1ML of Ge at different temperatures before carbonization. In every case, SiC was epitaxially grown on Si (111) showing characteristic defects and more relaxation than a reference sample where Ge was not employed. Depending on the temperature of Ge predeposition, a reduction of voids or stacking faults was achieved. The residual strain depended on this temperature, as was confirmed by electron diffraction and infrared ellipsometry measurements.