High quality metastable pseudomorphic Si1−xGexepilayers were grown by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition using Si2H6and GeH4. These epilayers were implanted with 40 keV B11+and 100 keV BF+2ions at a dose of 1×1015ions/cm2and then annealed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) processes at temperatures of 600, 650, 700, and 750 °C for 30 s duration. Double‐crystal x‐ray diffractometry was used to evaluate the level of the implant‐induced damage and the damage removing efficiency of both ion implanted samples at different RTA conditions. The results show that the RTA process is more effective at removing damage from B11+implanted samples than from those implanted with BF+2. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.