# Ultra-high strain in epitaxial silicon carbide nanostructures utilizing residual stress amplification

## TL;DR

This paper presents a novel nano strain-amplifier structure that achieves an unprecedented residual strain of up to 8% in epitaxial silicon carbide, enabling new physical investigations and ultra-sensitive sensors.

## Contribution

The study introduces a new nano strain-amplifier structure that significantly surpasses previous residual strain limits in SiC, with tunable strain levels.

## Key findings

- Achieved up to 8% residual strain in SiC structures.
- Demonstrated tunability of strain by changing amplifier dimensions.
- Opened pathways for physics exploration and sensor development in large strain regimes.

## 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.