On morphology and strain field of Ge/Si(001) Islands according to TEM phase imaging method

The mechanism driving Germanium islands nucleation and self-assembly is an important effect for opto-electronic applications, still not fully understood. We demonstrate that the new transmission electron microscopy phase imaging method provides insights on the distribution of strain and composition fields in and around the islands on rather large areas. The method consists of retrieving the phase from a focus series of plane view images. The phase image is representative of morphology, composition and strain. The results show that whatever the islands size and shape is, a maximum compressive strain is obtained at the apex of the islands compensated by a maximum tensile strain in the substrate close to the islands perimeter. The maximum compressive strain is associated to a larger Ge concentration. The distribution of tensile strain varies with the shape of the islands: for square base pyramidal "hut" islands, a maximum tensile strain is obtained at the four corners of the pyramid base and for "dome" islands, the tensile strain is less pronounced and affects almost the whole island perimeter. These results are consistent with the higher strain relaxation level of "dome" islands in comparison to those of "hut" islands.