The growth of Si/SiGe/Si structures for heterojunction bipolar transistor by gas source molecular beam epitaxy

Three n-p-n Si/SiGe/Si heterostructures with different layer thickness and doping concentration have been grown by a home-made gas source molecular-beam epitaxy (GSMBE) system using phosphine (PH3) and diborane (B2H6) as n-and p-type in situ doping sources, respectively. Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) have been fabricated using these structures and a current gain of 40 at 300 K and 62 at 77 K have been obtained. The influence of thickness and doping concentration of the deposited layers on the current gain of the HBTs is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

1.35 mu m photoluminescence from In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs islands grown by molecular beam epitaxy via cycled (InAs)(1)/(GaAs)(1) monolayer deposition

1.35 mum photoluminescence (PL) with a narrow linewidth of only 19.2 meV at room temperature has been achieved in In0.5Ga0.5As islands structure grown on GaAs (1 0 0) substrate by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement reveals that the 16-ML-thick In0.5Ga0.5As islands show quite uniform InGaAs mounds morphology along the [ 1(1) over bar 0] direction with a periodicity of about 90 nm in the [1 1 0] direction. Compared with the In0.5Ga0.5As alloy quantum well (QW) of the same width, the In0.5Ga0.5As islands structure always shows a lower PL peak energy and narrower full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), also a stronger PL intensity at low excitation power and more efficient confinement of the carriers. Our results provide important information for optimizing the epitaxial structures of 1.3 mum wavelength quantum dots devices. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Carbon film deposited by mass-selected low energy ion beam technique and ion bombardment effect

By mass-selected low energy ion beam deposition, amorphous carbon film was obtained. X-ray diffraction, Raman and Auger electron spectroscopy depth line shape measurements showed that such carbon films contained diamond particles. The main growth mechanism is subsurface implantation. Furthermore, it was indicated in a different way that ion bombardment played a decisive role in bias enhanced nucleation of chemical vapor deposition diamond.

Room temperature 1.55 mu m emission from InAs quantum dots grown on (001)InP substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

Self-assembled InAs nanostructures on (0 0 1)InP substrate have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and evaluated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL). It is found that the morphologies of InAs nanostructures depend strongly on the underlying alloy. Through introducing a lattice-matched underlying InAlGaAs layer on InAlAs buffer layer, the InAs quantum dots (QDs) can be much more uniform in size and great improvement in PL properties can be attained at the same time. In particular, 1.55 mu m luminescence at room temperature (RT) can be realized in InAs QDs deposited on (0 0 1)InP substrate with underlying InAlGaAs layer. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Observation of "ghost" islands and surfactant effect of surface gallium atoms during GaN growth by molecular beam epitaxy

We observe "ghost" islands formed on terraces during homoepitaxial nucleation of GaN. We attribute the ghost islands to intermediate nucleation states, which can be driven into "normal" islands by scanning tunneling microscopy. The formation of ghost islands is related to excess Ga atoms on the surface. The excess Ga also affect island number density: by increasing Ga coverage, the island density first decreases, reaching a minimum at about 1 monolayer (ML) Ga and then increases rapidly for coverages above 1 ML. This nonmonotonic behavior points to a surfactant effect of the Ga atoms.

Effect of rapid thermal annealing on GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

We have studied the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular-beam epitaxy using a dc plasma as the N source. It was found that RTA at low temperature (LT, 650 degrees C) and high temperature (HT, 900 degrees C) could both improve the QW quality significantly. To clarify the mechanism of quality improvement by RTA, a magnetic field perpendicular to the path of the N plasma flux was applied during the growth of the GaInNAs layers for the sake of comparison. It was found that LT-RTA mainly removed dislocations at interfaces related to the ion bombardment, whereas, HT-RTA further removed dislocations originating from the growth. LT-RTA caused only a slight blueshift of photoluminescence peak wavelength, probably due to defect-assisted interdiffusion of In-Ga at the QW interfaces. The blueshift caused by HT-RTA, on the other hand, was much larger. It is suggested that this is due to the fast defect-assisted diffusion of N-As at the QW interfaces. As defects are removed by annealing, the diffusion of In-Ga at interfaces would be predominant. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003- 6951(00)01535-7].

Influence of substrate orientation on In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy

In this paper, In0.5Ga0.5As quantum dots are fabricated on GaAs (100) and (n11)A/B (n = 3, 5) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Atomic force microscopy shows that the quantum dots on each oriented substrate are different in size, shape and distribution. In addition, photoluminescence spectra from these quantum dots are different in emission peak position, line width and integrated intensity. Auger electron spectra demonstrate that In concentration is larger near the surface than inside quantum dots, suggesting the occurrence of surface segregation effect during the growth of InGaAs dots. The surface segregation effect is found to be related to substrate orientation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoluminescence and optical quenching of photoconductivity studies on undoped GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Deep levels in undoped GaN materials grown by modified molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and optical quenching of photoconductivity measurements. A broad band which extends from 2.1 to 3.0 eV with a maximum at about 2.7 eV is observed, and four prominent quenching bands were found located at 2.18, 2.40, 2.71, and 2.78 eV above the valence band, respectively. These levels are attributed to four holes trap levels existence in the material. The defects cannot be firmly identified at present. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.

DX-like centers in n-type Al-doped ZnS1-xTex grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Al-related DX-like centers were observed in n-type Al-doped ZnS1-xTex epilayers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. The capacitance-voltage measurement, deep-level transient spectroscopy, and photoconductivity spectroscopy revealed that the behaviors of Al donors in ZnS1-xTex were similar to the so-called DX centers in AlxGa1-xAs. The optical ionization energies (E-i) and emission barriers (E-e) for the observed two Al-related DX-like centers were determined as E-i similar to 1.0 and 2.0cV and E-e similar to 0.21 and 0.39 eV, respectively. It was also shown that the formation of Al-related DX-like centers resulted in a significantly large lattice relaxation in ZnS1-xTex. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Kinetic modeling of N incorporation in GaInNAs growth by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

We have studied the growth of GaInNAs by a plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). It was found that the N-radicals were incorporated into the epitaxial layer like dopant atoms. In the range of 400-500 degrees C, the growth temperature (T-g) mainly affected the crystal quality of GaInNAs rather than the N concentration. The N concentration dropped rapidly when T-g exceeded 500 degrees C. Considering N desorption alone is insufficient to account for the strong falloff of the N concentration with T-g over 500 degrees C, the effect of thermally-activated N surface segregation must be taken into account. The N concentration was independent of the arsenic pressure and the In concentration in GaInNAs layers, but inversely proportional to the growth rate. Based on the experimental results, a kinetic model including N desorption and surface segregation was developed to analyze quantitatively the N incorporation in MBE growth. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00928-1].

The improvement characteristics of homoepitaxial GaAs grown by atomic hydrogen-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

The electrical activity of defects in GaAs grown on GaAs substrates doped with Si and Be by both conventional molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and atomic hydrogen-assisted MBE (H-MBE) were characterized by deep level transient spectroscopy. The trap densities are significantly reduced in the homoepitaxial GaAs grown by H-MBE compared to that grown by MBE. The reduction of trap densities is attributed to in situ passivation of these defects by atomic H during the growth. The improvement characteristics of GaAs materials will be significance for fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Annealing effect on the surface morphology and photoluminescence of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Postgrowth rapid thermal annealing was performed on InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The blue shift of the emission peak and the narrowing of the luminescence line width are observed at lower annealing temperature. However, when the annealing temperature is increased to 850 degrees C, the emission line width becomes larger. The TEM image of this sample shows that the surface becomes rough, and some large clusters are formed, which is due to the interdiffusion of In, Ga atoms at the InGaAs/GaAs interface and to the strain relaxation. The material is found to degrade dramatically when the annealing temperature is further increased to 900 degrees C, while emission from quantum dots can still be detected, along with the appearance of the emission from excited state. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Growth and characterization of strained superlattices delta-GaNxAs1-x/GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy

A series of superlattices delta-GaNxAs1-x/GaAs were grown by a DC plasma-N-2-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The evolution of the surface reconstruction during the growth has been studied with the use of in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction. The superlattices have been characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements. Distinct satellite peaks indicate that the superlattices are of good quality. The N compositions in strained GaNxAs1-x monolayers are obtained from the dynamical simulations of the measured X-ray diffraction patterns. The periodicity fluctuations of N composition are obtained from a kinematical method dependent on the broadening of the satellite peaks of the X-ray diffraction. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of arsenic precipitates on Fermi level in GaAs grown by molecular-beam epitaxy at low temperature

A simple model is presented to discuss the effect of As precipitates on the Fermi level in GaAs grown by molecular-beam epitaxy at low temperature (LT-GaAs). This model implements the compensation between point defects and the depletion of arsenic precipitates. The condition that the Fermi level is pinned by As precipitates is attained. The shifts of the Fermi level in LT-GaAs with annealing temperature are explained by our model. Additionally, the role of As precipitates in conventional semi-insulating GaAs is discussed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)09905-9].