Metastable pseudomorphic epilayers of Si1-xGex, where x was equal to 0.08 or 0.16 and the films were 145nm thick, were deposited onto Si(100) substrates by means of chemical vapor deposition. They were implanted with 90keV As ions, at room temperature, to a

dose of 1.5 x 1015/cm2. This amorphized the upper 125nm of the SiGe layers. Implanted and non-implanted SiGe samples were subsequently annealed by using short (10 to 40s) lamp annealing in N at 600 to 800C or by longer (0.5h) furnace annealing in a vacuum of about 5 x 10-7torr at 500 to 800C. Samples of Si were also implanted and annealed, as controls. It was found that the amorphized SiGe recrystallized via solid-phase epitaxy, when annealed at above 500C. The initial pseudomorphic strain in the SiGe was removed by short or long annealing treatments. High densities of dislocations (1010 to 1011/cm2) were usually present in the re-grown SiGe layers, but not in re-grown Si.

D.Y.C.Lie, S.Im, M.A.Nicolet, N.D.Theodore: Journal of Applied Physics, 1996, 79[11], 8341-8