Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was used to study electronic states associated with threading dislocations (D lines) in strain-relaxed Si1−xGex layers. The structures investigated were grown by ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHV/CVD) at 550 °C and consist of an Si(001) substrate followed by a step-wise graded buffer layer followed by a thick uniform composition Si1−xGex layer. Variations in the PL intensity and peak position of the four D lines after isochronal annealing at temperatures between 600 and 800 °C have been measured. We show that the large energy shift of the D1 line is due to a change in the local band-gap energy at the dislocation core due to strain-driven diffusion of Ge away from the dislocation core with an activation energy of 2.4 eV.