Ordering of Ge islands on Si(001) substrates patterned by nanoindentation

Spatial organization of Ge islands, grown by physical vapor deposition, on prepatterned Si(001) substrates has been investigated. The substrates were patterned prior to Ge deposition by nanoindentation. Characterization of Ge dots is performed by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The nanoindents act as trapping sites, allowing ripening of Ge islands at those locations during subsequent deposition and diffusion of Ge on the surface. The results show that island ordering is intrinsically linked to the nucleation and growth at indented sites and it strongly depends on pattern parameters.

Promoting strain relaxation of Si0.72Ge0.28 film on Si (100) substrate by inserting a low-temperature Ge islands layer in UHVCVD

A flat, fully strain-relaxed Si0.72Ge0.28 thin film was grown on Si (1 0 0) substrate with a combination of thin low-temperature (LT) Ge and LT-Si0.72Ge0.28 buffer layers by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition. The strain relaxation ratio in the Si0.72Ge0.28 film was enhanced up to 99% with the assistance of three-dimensional Ge islands and point defects introduced in the layers, which furthermore facilitated an ultra-low threading dislocation density of 5 x 10(4) cm (2) for the top SiGe film. More interestingly, no cross-hatch pattern was observed on the SiGe surface and the surface root-mean-square roughness was less than 2 nm. The temperature for the growth of LT-Ge layer was optimized to be 300 degrees C. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1.55 mu m Ge islands resonant-cavity-enhanced detector with high-reflectivity bottom mirror

A 1.55 mum Ge islands resonant-cavity-enhanced (RCE) detector with high-reflectivity bottom mirror was fabricated by a simple method. The bottom mirror was deposited in the hole formed by anisotropically etching in a basic solution from the back side of the sample with the buried SiO2 layer in silicon-on-insulator substrate as the etch-stop layer. Reflectivity spectrum indicates that the mirror deposited in the hole has a reflectivity as high as 99% in the range of 1.2-1.65 mum. The peak responsivity of the RCE detector at 1543.8 nm is 0.028 mA/W and a full width at half maximum of 5 nm is obtained. Compared with the conventional p-i-n photodetector, the responsivity of RCE detector has a nearly threefold enhancement. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Increasing the photoluminescence intensity of Ge islands by chemical etching

Self-assembled Ge islands were grown on Si(100) substrate by Si2H6-Ge molecular beam epitaxy. After being subjected to chemical etching, it is found that the photoluminescence from the etched Ge islands became more intense and shifted to the higher-energy side compared to that of the as-deposited Ge islands. This behaviour was explained by the effect of chemical etching on the morphology of the Ge islands. Our results demonstrate that chemical etching can be a way to change the luminescence property of the as-deposited islands.

Atomic-force-microscopy investigation of the formation and evolution of Ge islands on GexSi1-x strained layers

A constant amount of Ge was deposited on strained GexSi1-x layers of approximately the same thickness but with different alloy compositions, ranging from x = 0.06 to x = 0.19. From their atomic-force-microscopy images, we found that both the size and density of Ge islands increased with the Ge composition of the strained layer. By conservation of mass, this implies that these islands must incorporate material from the underlying strained layer. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03529-4].

Effect of Si overgrowth on the structural and luminescence properties of Ge islands on Si(100)

The effect of Si overgrowth on the structural and luminescence properties of strained Ge layer grown on Si(1 0 0) is studied. Capping Si leads to the dissolution of Ge island apex and reduced island height. The structural changes in island shape, especially in chemical composition during Si overgrowth have a large effect on the PL properties. The integrated PL intensity of Ge layer increases and there are large blue shifts in peak energies after capping Si. The PL spectra from buried Ge layer are consistent with type-II band alignment in SiGe/Si. We show that the PL properties from buried Ge layer may be tailored by modifying the cap layer growth conditions as well as post-growth annealing. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolution of height distribution of Ge islands on Si(1 0 0)

Evolution of the height distribution of Ge islands during in situ annealing of Ge films on Si(1 0 0) has been studied. Island height is found to have a bimodal distribution. The standard deviation of the island height divided by the mean island height, for the mode of larger island size is more than that for the other mode. We suggest that the presence of Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers, combined with the misfit strain, can lead to the bimodal distribution of island size, the mode of larger island size having narrower base size distribution, but wider height distribution for Ge islands on Si(1 0 0). The bimodal distribution of island size could be stable due to kinetics without necessarily regarding it as minimum-energy configuration. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

1.55 mu m Ge islands resonant-cavity-enhanced narrowband detector

The high quality Ge islands material with 1.55 mu m photo-response grown on Sol substrate is reported. Due to the modulation of the cavity formed by the mirrors at the surface and the buried SiO2 interface, seven sharp and strong peaks with narrow linewidth are found. And a 1.55 mu m Ge islands resonant-cavity-enhanced (RCE) detector with narrowband was fabricated by a simple method. The bottom mirror was deposited in the hole formed by anisotropically etching, in a basic solution from the backside of the sample with the buried SiO2 layer in silicon-on-insulator substrate as the etch-stop layer. Reflectivity spectrum indicates that the mirror deposited in the hole has a reflectivity as high as 99% in the range of 1.2-1.65 mu m. The peak responsivity of the RCE detector at 1543.8 nm is 0.028 mA/W and a full width at half maximum of 5 nm is obtained. Compared with the conventional p-i-n photodetector, the responsivity of RCE detector has a nearly threefold enhancement.

Novel room temperature photoluminescence of Ge/Si islands in multilayer structure grown on silicon-on-insulator substrate

Novel room temperature photoluminescence (PL) of the Ge/Si islands in multilayer structure grown on silicon-on-insulator substrates is investigated. The cavity formed by the mirrors at the surface and the buried SiO2 interface has a strong effect on the PL emission. The peak position is consistent with the theoretical calculation and independent of the exciting power, which is the evidence of cavity effect on the room temperature photoluminescence. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shape evolution of Ge/Si(001) islands induced by strain-driven alloying

The shape evolution of Ge/Si(001) islands grown by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition were investigated by atomic force microscopy at different deposition rates. We find that, at low deposition rates, the evolution of islands follows the conventional pathway by which the islands form the pyramid islands, evolve into dome islands, and dislocate at a superdome shape with increasing coverage. While at a high deposition rate of 3 monolayers per minute, the dome islands evolve towards the pyramids by a reduction of the contact angle. The presence of the atomic intermixing between the Ge islands and Si substrate at high deposition rate is responsible for the reverse evolution. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Different transfer paths for thermally activated electrons and holes in self-organized Ge/Si(001) islands in a multilayer structure

We investigated the temperature dependence (10-250 K) of the photoluminescence (PL) emission spectrum of self-organized Ge/Si(001) islands in a multilayer structure. With elevated temperature, we find that the thermally activated holes and electrons are gathered by the Ge islands in different ways. The holes drift from the wetting layer into the islands, while the electrons, confined in Si due to type-II band alignment, leak into the Ge islands by the electrostatic interaction with the holes accumulated there. It results in an increase of the integrated intensity of island-related PL at a certain temperature range and a reduction of the phonon energy in the phonon-assisted PL of the islands by involving a type-I transition into a type-II transition. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Optical characterization of the Ge/Si (001) islands in multilayer structure

We show that the observed temperature dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) features can be consistently explained in terms of thermally activated carrier transfer processes in a multilayer structure of the self-organized Ge/Si(001) islands. The type II (electron confinement in Si) behavior of the Ge/Si islands is verified. With elevated temperature, the thermally activated electrons and holes enter the Ge islands from the Si and from the wetting layer (WL), respectively. An involvement of the type I (spatially direct) into type II (spatially indirect) recombination transition takes place at a high temperature.

[0 0 1] zone-axis bright-field diffraction contrast from coherent Ge(Si) islands on Si(0 0 1): Dedicated to Professor Fang-hua Li on the occasion of her 70th birthday

Coherent Ge(Si)/Si(001) quantum dot islands grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy at a growth temperature of 700degreesC were investigated using transmission electron microscopy working at 300 kV. The [001] zone-axis bright-field diffraction contrast images of the islands show strong periodicity with the change of the TEM sample substrate thickness and the period is equal to the effective extinction distance of the transmitted beam. Simulated images based on finite element models of the displacement field and using multi-beam dynamical diffraction theory show a high degree of agreement. Studies for a range of electron energies show the power of the technique for investigating composition segregation in quantum dot islands. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shape transition in very large germanium islands on Si(111)

Ge islands with areas up to hundreds of μm2 were grown on Si(111). These islands, grown above 750 °C and at a deposition rate of 1 monolayer/min, become decreasingly compact with increasing size and can have nonuniform cross sections with heights reaching over 500 nm. The largest islands are ramified, often comprising multiple discrete parts. X-rayphotoemission electron microscopy absorption maps show that the islands have a higher concentration of Ge at their centers, with more Si near the edges. We propose that the shape transformation is driven by strain relief at the island perimeters.

Study of nucleation positions of InAs islands on stripe-patterned GaAs(100) substrate

By combination of prepatterned substrate and self-organized growth, InAs islands are grown on the stripe-patterned GaAs (100) substrate by solid soul-cc molecular beam epitaxy. Four [011] stripe-patterned substrates different in pitch, depth, and sidewall angle, respectively, are used in this work. The surface morphology obtained by atomic force microscopy shows that the InAs quantum dots can be formed either on the ridge or on the sidewall of the stripes near the bottom, depending on the structure of the stripes on the patterned substrate. The mechanism determining the nucleation position of the InAs dots is discussed. The optical properties of the InAs dots on the patterned substrates are also investigated by photo luminescence. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.