Strain relaxation in nano-patterned strained-Si/SiGe heterostructure on insulator

Abstract In order to evaluate the strain stability, arrays of strained Si/SiGe nano-stripes and nano-pillars were fabricated by Electron-Beam Lithography (EBL) and Reactive-Ion Etching (RIE). The strain relaxation in the patterned strained Si on SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) was investigated by high-resolution UV micro-Raman spectroscopy. The Raman measurements before and after patterning indicate that most of the strain in the top strained Si is maintained until scaling down to 300 nm, and relaxation of