The critical thickness of an epilayer deposited on a semiconductor-on-insulator compliant substrate

Abstract

The critical thickness of an epilayer grown on a compliant substrate with the semiconductor-on-insulator configuration is investigated on the assumption that sliding boundary conditions hold along the interface between the thin crystal substrate and the amorphous underneath layer. An exact solution determining the critical thickness is formulated using both superposition and Fourier transformation. The results show that the critical thickness increases with the decreases in the thickness of the thin crystal substrate and the elastic constant of the insulator. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.