Top-down method to introduce ultra-high elastic strain
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Richard Geiger Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland; and Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Esteban Marin Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Elisabeth Müller Electron Microscopy Facility, Laboratory of Biomolecular Research, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Ana Diaz Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Christopher Bonzon and Martin J. Süess Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Ralph Spolenak Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Jérôme Faist Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Hans Sigg Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland (Received 17 August 2016; accepted 10 January 2017)
Elastic strain is an effective and thus widely used parameter to control and modify the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of crystalline solid-state materials. It has a large impact on device performance and enables adjusting the materials functionality. Here, we promote a micromechanical strain enhancement technology to achieve ultra-high strain in semiconductors. The here presented suspended membranes enable the accurate control of the strain on a wafer-scale by standard top-down fabrication methods making it attractive for both device applications and also, thanks to the simplicity of the method, for fundamental research. This review aims at discussing the process of strain enhancement and its usage as an investigation platform for strain-related physical properties. Furthermore, we present design rules and a detailed analysis of fracture effects limiting the strain enhancement.
I. INTRODUCTION
The vast impact of semiconductor materials on modern life is predominantly due to the possibility of adapting their physical properties via the control of their electronic band structure. For semiconductor crystals such as silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge), which form the heart of modern computer and telecommunication industry,1,2 the tuning is achieved via doping with e.g., phosphorous and boron and the application of a surface electrical field. These ingredients enable the creation of transistors, p–n diodes, and photodiodes. Likewise, p–n junctions assembled around heterostructures and quantum wells formed Contributing Editor: Mathias Göken a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2017.31
by alloys such as GaAs/AlGaAs or InGaAs/InP are used to fabricate lasers and light emitting diodes. The last decades have shown that the strain can likewise be used to influence important semiconductor properties such as carrier mobility and band alignment. Accordingly, applied elastic strain can lift band degeneracies and reduce carrier scattering and the effective mass, and thereby increase the carrier mobility.3–6 Strain can also tune bandgap energies and, thus, impro
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