Influence of phosphine flow rate on Si growth rate in gas source molecular beam epitaxy

As reported by other authors, we have also observed that the Si growth rate decreases with increasing phosphine (PH3) flow rate in gas source-Si molecular beam epitaxy using phosphorous (P) as a n-type dopant. Why small quantity PH3 can affect Si growth rate? Up to now, the quantitative characterization of PH3 flow influence on Si growth rate is little known. In this letter, the PH, influence will be analyzed in detail and a model considering strong P surface segregation and its absorption of hydrogen will be proposed to characterize the effect. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Carrier transport properties of the (n)nc-Si : H/(p)c-Si heterojunction

Phosphor-doped nano-crystalline silicon ((n))nc-Si:H) films are successfully grown on the p-type (100) oriented crystal silicon ((p) c-Si) substrate by conventional plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. The films are obtained using high H-2 diluted SiH4 as a reaction gas source and using PH3 as the doping gas source of phosphor atoms. Futhermore, the heterojunction diodes are also fabricated by using (n)nc-Si:H films and (p)c-Si substrate. I-V properties are investigated in the temperature range of 230-420K. The experimental results domenstrate that (n)nc-Si:H/(p) c-Si heterojunction is a typical abrupt heterojunction having good rectifing and temperature properties. Carrier transport mechanisms are tunneling - recombination model at forward bias voltages. In the range of low bias voltages ( V-F< 0.8 V), the current is determined by recombination at the (n)nc-Si:H side of the space charge region, while the current becomes tunneing at higher bias voltages( V-F>1.0 V). The present heterojunction has high reverse breakdown voltage ( > - 75 V) and low reverse current (approximate to nA).

Back-incident SiGe-Si multiple quantum-well resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors for 1.3-mu m operation

A back-incident Si-0.65 Ge-0.35/Si multiple quantum-well resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetector operating near 1.3 mum is demonstrated on a separation-by-implantation-oxygen substrate. The resonant cavity is composed of an electron-beam evaporated SiO2-Si distributed Bragg reflector as a top mirror and the interface between the buried SiO2 and the Si substrate as a bottom mirror. We have obtained the responsivity as high as 31 mA/WI at 1.305 mum and the full width at half maximum of 14 nm.

The formation and characteristics of Si1-xCx alloys in Si crystals by means of implantation of cions with different doses

Carbon ions with concentration of (0.6-1.5)% were implanted into silicon crystals at room temperature and Si1-xCx alloys were grown by solid phase epitaxy with high temperature annealing. The formation and characteristics of Si1-xCx alloys under different implanted carbon doses were studied. If the implanted carbon atom concentration was less than 0.6%, carbon atoms would tend to combine with the defects produced during implantation and it was difficult for Si1-xCx alloys to form during annealing at 850-950 degreesC. With the increase of implanted C concentration, almost all implanted carbon atoms would occupy substitution positions to form Si1-xCx alloys, but only part of implanted carbon atoms would occupy the substitution position to form Si1-xCx alloys as the implanted dose increased to 1.5 %. Most Si1-xCx alloy phases would vanish as the annealing temperature was increased higher.

Light and annealing induced changes in Si-H bonds in undoped a-Si : H

Light and annealing induced changes in Si-H bonds in undoped a-Si:H have been investigated by a differential infrared spectroscopy method. The light-induced changes in Si-H bonds are not monotonic, quite different from the usual Staebler-Wronski effect in electronic properties, and involve more complicated physics. The magnitude of the light-induced changes in Si-H bonds is proportional to the hydrogen content in the film. There may exist more than one microscopic process which determine the light-induced changes in Si-H bonds. Almost the whole a-Si:H network is affected when a-Si:H is subjected to Light-soaking or to annealing. The light-induced changes in Si-H bonds may be an independent light-induced phenomenon or an auxiliary process of the metastable SWE defect creation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oblique alignment of columns of self-organized Ge/Si(001) islands in multilayer structure

Ge/Si multilayer structures with a bimodal distribution of the island spacing in the first layer have been investigated by atomic-force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Besides the vertical alignment, some oblique alignments of stacked islands are observed. The presence of the elastic interaction between islands is responsible for the oblique alignment of stacked islands. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04644-1].

Modeling the dynamics of Si wafer bonding during annealing

The bonding behavior of silicon wafers depends on activation energy for the formation of siloxane bonds. In this article we developed a quantitative model on the dynamics of silicon wafer bonding during annealing. Based on this model, a significant difference in the bonding behaviors is compared quantitatively between the native oxide bonding interface and the thermal oxide bonding interface. The results indicate that the bonding strength of the native oxide interface increases with temperature much more rapidly than that of the thermal oxide interface. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)05520-1].

Si1-xGex/Si resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetectors with a silicon-on-oxide reflector operating near 1.3 mu m

We report on a Si1-xGex/Si multiple quantum-well resonant-cavity-enhanced (RCE) photodetector with a silicon-on-oxide reflector as the bottom mirror operating near 1.3 mu m. The breakdown voltage of the photodetector is above 18 V and the dark current density at 5 V reverse bias is 12 pA/mu m(2). The RCE photodetector shows enhanced responsivity with a clear peak at 1.285 mu m and the peak responsivity is measured around 10.2 mA/W at a reverse bias of 5 V. The external quantum efficiency at 1.3 mu m is measured to be 3.5% under reverse bias of 16 V, which is enhanced three- to fourfold compared with that of a conventional p-i-n photodetector with a Ge content of 0.5 reported in 1995 by Huang [Appl. Phys. Lett. 67, 566 (1995)]. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00628-8].

Raman study on residual strains in thin 3C-SiC epitaxial layers grown on Si(001)

Raman scattering measurement has been used to study the residual strains in the thin 3C-SiC/Si(001) epilayers with a variation of film thickness from 0.1 to 1.2 mu m. which were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD)growth. Two methods have been exploited to figure our the residual strains and the exact LO bands. The final analyzing results show that residual strains exist in the 3C-SiC epilayers. The average stress is 1.3010 GPa, and the relative change of the lattice constant is 1.36 parts per thousand. Our measurements also show that 3C-SiC phonons are detectable even for the samples with film thickness in the range of 0.1 to 0.2 mu m. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of circular waveguide photodetectors using SiGe/Si multiple quantum wells

We report on the fabrication of circular waveguide photodetectors with a response near 1.3 mu m wavelength using SiGe/Si multiple quantum wells. The quantum efficiency of the circular waveguide photodetector is improved when compared with that of the rib waveguide photodetector in the same wavelength at 1.3 mu m The frequency response of the photodetectors is simulated. The emciency-bandwidth product of the circular waveguide photodetectors is improved correspondingly. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Observation of quantum-confined Stark shifts in SiGe/Si type-I multiple quantum wells

Quantum-confined Stark shifts in SiGe/Si type-I multiple quantum wells are suggested by the bias dependence of the photocurrent spectra of p-i-n photodiodes. Both Stark redshift and blueshift have been observed for the same sample in the different ranges of electric fields applied to the quantum wells. The turnaround point corresponds to a certain electric field (named "critical" field). This phenomenon was generally predicted by Austin in 1985 [Phys. Rev. B 31, 5569 (1985)] and calculated in detail for SiGe quantum structure by Kim recently [Thin Solid Films 321, 215 (1998)]. The critical electric field obtained from the photocurrent spectra is in reasonable agreement with the theoretical prediction. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)03711-7].

Photoluminescence in Si and Be directly doped self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots

We report on the photoluminescence in directly Si- and Be-doped self-organized InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs). When the doping level is low, a decrease in linewidth is observed. However, it will decrease the uniformity and photoluminescence peak intensity of QDs when the doping level is high. We relate this phenomenon to a model that takes the Si or Be atoms as the nucleation centers for the formation of QDs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Sputtering of ZnO buffer layer on Si for GaN blue light emitting materials

The preparation of high quality ZnO/Si substrates for the growth of GaN blue light emitting materials is considered. ZnO thin films have been deposited on Si(100) and Si(lll) substrates by conventional magnetron sputtering. Morphology, crystallinity and c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO thin films have been investigated by transmitting electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray rocking curve (XRC). It is proved that the ZnO thin films have perfect structure. The full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of the ZnO(002) XRC of these films is about 1 degrees, while the minimum is 0.353 degrees. This result is better than the minimum FWHM (about 2 degrees) reported by other research groups. Moreover, comparison and discussion are given on film structure of ZnO/Si(100) and ZnO/Si(lll).

A study of Si1-xGex/Si quantum-well intermixing by photocurrent spectroscopy

Photocurrent spectroscopy has been used to study quantum-well intermixing in this paper. The cut-off wavelength of the photodiodes based on the implanted and annealed materials is significantly reduced, compared with that measured in annealed-only photodetectors. The bandgap of SiGe quantum well in implanted and annealed samples is blue-shifted by up to 97 meV, relative to that in annealed-only samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

The effect of dopant Si on the uniformity of self-organized InAs quantum dots

The photoluminescence in directly si-doped self-organized InAs quantum dots was systematically studied. With doping, a decrease in linewidth and a little blue shift in peak were observed by PL measurement. The results show that direct doping when growing InAs layer may be helpful to the formation of uniform small quantum dots. The work will be meaningful for the fabrication of self-organized InAs quantum dots semiconductor device.