Epitaxial growth of silicon and silicon germanium alloy films on Si(I 0 0) substrates in an ASM Epsilon(R) single wafer reactor system using trisilane and germane has been investigated. The results obtained reveal that it is possible to achieve epitaxial silicon and silicon germanium growth rates at 630 degreesC and below that are substantially higher than those possible using silane, while maintaining high quality crystalline structure. The films grown were characterized using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), high resolution X-Ray diffraction (HR-XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (X-TEM). (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.