  The present study reports Al induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous
(a)-SiGe in Al-Ge-Si ternary system at low temperature ~ 350 degree C. In
addition to crystallization, the isothermal annealing of
a-SiGe/AlOx/Al/corning-glass (CG) structure was found to be accompanied by an
Al induced layer exchange (ALILE) phenomenon. The evolution of residual stress
in the Al layer during isothermal annealing is evaluated using X-ray
diffraction based technique to ascertain the role of stress in the ALILE
process. A corroboration of the stress with the growth kinetics, analyzed using
Avrami theory of phase transformation gives a comprehensive understanding of
the ALILE crystallization process in this system. The grown polycrystalline
SiGe thin film is a potential candidate for novel technological applications in
semiconductor devices.
