Si–Ge–C growth and devices

Silicon–germanium can now be regarded as a relatively well-established technology, and consequently much recent work has addressed the additional possibilities opened up by adding carbon to form the ternary alloy SiGeC. Carbon in principle provides additional bandgap engineering possibilities and also has an important impact on the stability of strained epitaxial layers. This paper surveys recent work on the growth of Si–Ge–C epitaxial layers, with particular emphasis on the advantages and limitations of carbon incorporation. Examples of applications in which carbon leads to improved device performance are discussed.