There is an ongoing need in the industry to decrease the size of semiconductor devices such as fin-field effect transistors (fin-FETs) in order to increase performance (speed) and decrease power consumption. One method to increase speed is to adjust the strain (from either compressive stress or tensile stress) on the semiconductor portions of the fin-field effect transistor. While these provide benefits to transistor performance, an even greater speed increase for fin-FETs in future applications beyond that attainable today is still required. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.