The alloy silicon carbon (Si_1-yC_y) has various strain engineering applications. It is often implemented as a dopant diffusion barrier and has been identified as a potential buffer layer for cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) heteroepitaxy. While suspended membranes formed from thin films of semiconductor (Ge and 3C-SiC) and dielectric (Si₃N₄) materials have been well studied, pseudomorphic, defect-free epilayers under high levels of tensile strain have received little attention. Often, tensile strain is a desired quality of semiconductors and enhancing this property can lead to various benefits of subsequent device applications. The strain state and crystalline tilt of suspended Si_1-yC_y epilayers have been investigated through micro-X-ray diffraction techniques. The in-plane tensile strain of the alloy was found to increase from 0.67% to 0.82%. This strain increase could reduce the C content required to achieve suitable levels of strain in such alloys and further strain enhancement could be externally induced. The source of this strain increase was found to stem from slight tilts at the edges of the membranes, however, the bulk of the suspended films remained flat. The novel process utilised to fabricate suspended Si_1-yC_y thin-films is applicable to many other materials that are typically not resistant to anisotropic Si wet etchants.

合金硅碳（Si _1-y C _y）具有多种应变工程应用。它通常用作掺杂剂扩散阻挡层，并已被确定为立方碳化硅 (3C-SiC) 异质外延的潜在缓冲层。虽然已经很好地研究了由半导体（Ge 和 3C-SiC）和电介质（Si ₃ N ₄）材料薄膜形成的悬浮膜，但在高水平拉伸应变下的假晶、无缺陷外延层很少受到关注。通常，拉伸应变是半导体所需的质量，增强这种特性可以为后续器件应用带来各种好处。悬浮Si _1-y C _y的应变态和晶体倾斜外延层已经通过微 X 射线衍射技术进行了研究。发现合金的面内拉伸应变从 0.67% 增加到 0.82%。这种应变增加可以降低在此类合金中实现适当应变水平所需的 C 含量，并且可以从外部诱导进一步的应变增强。发现这种应变增加的来源源于膜边缘的轻微倾斜，然而，大部分悬浮膜保持平坦。用于制造悬浮 Si _1-y C _y薄膜的新工艺适用于许多其他通常不耐受各向异性 Si 湿蚀刻剂的材料。