Investigation of strain relaxation in patterned strained silicon-on-insulator structures by Raman spectroscopy and computer simulation

The authors study the simplest but scientifically relevant case, where in the absence of capping layers or any other precautions, strain relaxation by film patterning and high temperature annealing can be observed. The thermal stability of bi-axial strain is maintained solely by a nonepitaxial bonded interface with the amorphous buried oxide in sSOI after patterning and subsequent high temperature annealing.