High-temperature microhardness of SiGe epitaxial layers grown on Ge and Si substrates

The influences of the composition of SixGe1-x epitaxial layers, grown on Ge and Si substrates, on the microhardness and length of the dislocation rosette arms formed around indenter marks (at the homological temperatures 0.5T(melt) of the corresponding alloys) have been studied. For SixGe1-x/Ge (0 less than or equal to x < 0.15) and SixGe1-x/Si alloy (0.85 < x less than or equal to 1) heterostructures, a non-monotonic dependence of the parameters investigated on the composition of the solid solution was observed. The most probable reason for these effects is the hardening at a certain composition that occurs in solid solutions.