Title: Ultra-high strain in epitaxial silicon carbide nanostructures utilizing residual stress amplification,
Abstract: Strain engineering has attracted great attention, particularly for epitaxial
films grown on a different substrate. Residual strains of SiC have been widely
employed to form ultra-high frequency and high Q factor resonators. However, to
date the highest residual strain of SiC was reported to be limited to
approximately 0.6%. Large strains induced into SiC could lead to several
interesting physical phenomena, as well as significant improvement of resonant
frequencies. We report an unprecedented nano strain-amplifier structure with an
ultra-high residual strain up to 8% utilizing the natural residual stress
between epitaxial 3C SiC and Si. In addition, the applied strain can be tuned
by changing the dimensions of the amplifier structure. The possibility of
introducing such a controllable and ultra-high strain will open the door to
investigating the physics of SiC in large strain regimes, and the development
of ultra sensitive mechanical sensors.