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Abstract:
We observe that the morphology of strained SiGe/Si(001) islands oscillates between shallow and steeper shapes during extensive in situ annealing at the growth temperature. We attribute this result to a competition between coarsening and Si-Ge intermixing as paths to strain relaxation. A simple model, in which the equilibrium island shape depends on volume and the average misfit with the substrate, accounts for the observed behavior. Dislocated islands evolve similarly to coherent islands, with no introduction of additional dislocations throughout the annealing.
