Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
The fabrication of electronic devices on semiconductor islands is becoming increasingly common because of silicon-on-insulator technology and/or because of strain engineering in compliant substrate approaches. While photoluminescence can be an accurate probe of Ge content and strain, in islands it can be affected by the presence of the island edges. Here we present data and a model showing that for high quality SiGe, edge effects are critical for sizes under ∼20 μm. These effects can be mitigated by regrowing epitaxial silicon to passivate the recombination states on the island edges.