An effective wet cleaning process, optimized for low temperature Ge epitaxial growth on thin Ge or SiGe structures with reduced surface roughening, is proposed. It is found that HF + HCl cleaning is the most effective wet cleaning method that is applicable to the low temperature thermal cleaning. It is also found that temperature of the thermal cleaning appropriate to 25-30 nm thick germanium on insulator (GOI) or silicon-germanium on insulator (SGOI) substrates is approximately 450 degrees C. Moreover, it is also found that the temperatures of Ge epitaxial growth even in lattice-matched systems must be reduced to around 400 degrees C to prevent surface roughening and those in lattice-mismatched systems also must be reduced sufficiently (300 degrees C for strained Ge growth on SGOI (X-eff = 0.6)) to prevent lattice relaxation as well as surface roughening. Finally, the successful formation of the compressively strained GOI structures is demonstrated by applying these wet cleaning and low temperature thermal cleaning processes and low temperature Ge epitaxy to thin SGOI substrates. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.