Flash lamp annealing induced rapid melting of a near surface Ge enriched Si wafer and the subsequent formation of SiGe layers were demonstrated. The formation of an undesirable facetted liquid/solid interface, well known for pulse melting in the millisecond time regime, was found to decrease significantly due to the increasing melting temperature of Si with reducing Ge concentration at the SiGe/Si interface. A dislocation network and the existence of strain, which were evidenced by transmission electron microscopy and μ-Raman measurements, respectively, are expected to play an important role to form thin SiGe layers. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.