Structural properties of relaxed thin film germanium layers grown by low temperature RF-PECVD epitaxy on Si and Ge (100) substrates

R. Cariou; R. Ruggeri; X. Tan; Giovanni Mannino; J. Nassar; P. Roca I Cabarrocas

doi:10.1063/1.4886774

Structural properties of relaxed thin film germanium layers grown by low temperature RF-PECVD epitaxy on Si and Ge (100) substrates

R. Cariou
, R. Ruggeri
, X. Tan
, Giovanni Mannino
, J. Nassar
, P. Roca I Cabarrocas

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We report on unusual low temperature (175 °C) heteroepitaxial growth of germanium thin films using a standard radio-frequency plasma process. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal a perfect crystalline quality of epitaxial germanium layers on (100) c-Ge wafers. In addition direct germanium crystal growth is achieved on (100) c-Si, despite 4.2% lattice mismatch. Defects rising from Ge/Si interface are mostly located within the first tens of nanometers, and threading dislocation density (TDD) values as low as 10⁶ cm^-2 are obtained. Misfit stress is released fast: residual strain of -0.4% is calculated from Moiré pattern analysis. Moreover we demonstrate a striking feature of low temperature plasma epitaxy, namely the fact that crystalline quality improves with thickness without epitaxy breakdown, as shown by TEM and depth profiling of surface TDD.

Original language	English
Article number	077103
Journal	AIP Advances
Volume	4
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4886774
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2014

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title = "Structural properties of relaxed thin film germanium layers grown by low temperature RF-PECVD epitaxy on Si and Ge (100) substrates",

abstract = "We report on unusual low temperature (175 °C) heteroepitaxial growth of germanium thin films using a standard radio-frequency plasma process. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal a perfect crystalline quality of epitaxial germanium layers on (100) c-Ge wafers. In addition direct germanium crystal growth is achieved on (100) c-Si, despite 4.2\% lattice mismatch. Defects rising from Ge/Si interface are mostly located within the first tens of nanometers, and threading dislocation density (TDD) values as low as 106 cm-2 are obtained. Misfit stress is released fast: residual strain of -0.4\% is calculated from Moir{\'e} pattern analysis. Moreover we demonstrate a striking feature of low temperature plasma epitaxy, namely the fact that crystalline quality improves with thickness without epitaxy breakdown, as shown by TEM and depth profiling of surface TDD.",

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T1 - Structural properties of relaxed thin film germanium layers grown by low temperature RF-PECVD epitaxy on Si and Ge (100) substrates

AU - Cariou, R.

AU - Ruggeri, R.

AU - Tan, X.

AU - Mannino, Giovanni

AU - Nassar, J.

AU - Roca I Cabarrocas, P.

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - We report on unusual low temperature (175 °C) heteroepitaxial growth of germanium thin films using a standard radio-frequency plasma process. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal a perfect crystalline quality of epitaxial germanium layers on (100) c-Ge wafers. In addition direct germanium crystal growth is achieved on (100) c-Si, despite 4.2% lattice mismatch. Defects rising from Ge/Si interface are mostly located within the first tens of nanometers, and threading dislocation density (TDD) values as low as 106 cm-2 are obtained. Misfit stress is released fast: residual strain of -0.4% is calculated from Moiré pattern analysis. Moreover we demonstrate a striking feature of low temperature plasma epitaxy, namely the fact that crystalline quality improves with thickness without epitaxy breakdown, as shown by TEM and depth profiling of surface TDD.

AB - We report on unusual low temperature (175 °C) heteroepitaxial growth of germanium thin films using a standard radio-frequency plasma process. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal a perfect crystalline quality of epitaxial germanium layers on (100) c-Ge wafers. In addition direct germanium crystal growth is achieved on (100) c-Si, despite 4.2% lattice mismatch. Defects rising from Ge/Si interface are mostly located within the first tens of nanometers, and threading dislocation density (TDD) values as low as 106 cm-2 are obtained. Misfit stress is released fast: residual strain of -0.4% is calculated from Moiré pattern analysis. Moreover we demonstrate a striking feature of low temperature plasma epitaxy, namely the fact that crystalline quality improves with thickness without epitaxy breakdown, as shown by TEM and depth profiling of surface TDD.

U2 - 10.1063/1.4886774

DO - 10.1063/1.4886774

M3 - Article

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JO - AIP Advances

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IS - 7

M1 - 077103

ER -

Structural properties of relaxed thin film germanium layers grown by low temperature RF-PECVD epitaxy on Si and Ge (100) substrates

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