The effect of hydrostatic pressures upon the relaxation behavior of pseudomorphic SiGe layers on Si substrates was studied by means of X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The SiGe samples were annealed at 900 and 950C, under pressures of 10 and 1GPa, respectively. A comparison with annealing experiments which had been carried out under atmospheric pressure revealed both a marked increase in relaxation, and a marked enhancement of Ge-Si interdiffusion with increasing pressure. Both effects were attributed to a decrease in the formation energy, of vacancies in Si, with increasing pressure.

P.Zaumseil, G.G.Fischer, C.Quick, A.Misiuk: Solid State Phenomena, 1996, 47-48, 517-22