Relaxation of a strained 3C-SiC(111) thin film on silicon by He+ and O+ ion beam defect engineering

In this paper we report on the successful reduction of tensile strain in a thin strained ion-beam synthesized 3C-SiC(1 1 1) layer on silicon. The creation of a near-interface defect structure consisting of nanometric voids and stacking fault type defects by He ion implantation and subsequent annealing yields significant relaxation in the top SiC film. The microstructure of the defect layer is studied by transmission electron microscopy, and the strain state of the 3C-SiC layer was studied by high-resolution X-ray diffraction in a parallel beam configuration. Typical process conditions for the growth of GaN films on the SiC layer were emulated by high temperature treatments in a rapid thermal annealer or a quartz tube furnace. It is found that prolonged annealing at high temperatures leads to ripening of the voids and to a weaker reduction of the tensile strain. It is shown that this problem can be overcome by the co-implantation of oxygen ions to form highly thermally stable void/extended defect structures.