Direct band gap optical emission from Ge islands grown on relaxed Si0.5Ge0.5/Si (100) substrate

Strained Ge islands have been grown on fully relaxed Si0.5Ge0.5 substrate by pulsed laser ablation technique. The formation of strained Ge islands has been found for film with higher thickness following Stranski–Krastanov growth mechanism. The variation of strain with changing Ge layer thickness has been analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. X-ray photoelectron spectra have shown the absence of any Si-Ge intermixing and oxidation of Ge films. A strong no-phonon photoluminescence emission from Ge islands has been observed, showing the superior optical characteristics of the islands grown on relaxed substrate