HRTEM study of strained Si/Ge multilayers

Deformation in Si/Ge strained multilayers has been characterised by HRTEM. The HRTEM strain profile determined by image treatment has been used to compare two growth techniques: Hot wire assisted gas source and ultra high vacuum molecular beam epitaxy. We have shown that for the first technique, germanium layers are highly strained. This is probably due to the incorporation of atomic hydrogen which would prevent relaxation by stacking faults formation.