Abstract
We have investigated the low temperature (LT) growth of GeSn–Ge–Si structures using rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition system utilizing Ge2H6 and SnCl4 as the reactive precursors. Due to inappropriate phenomena, such as, Ge etch and Sn segregation, it was hard to achieve high quality GeSn epitaxy at the temperature > 350 °C. On the contrary, we found that the SnCl4 promoted the reaction of Ge2H6 precursors in a certain process condition of LT, 240–360 °C. In return, we could perform the growth of GeSn epi layer with 7.7% of Sn and its remaining compressive strain of 71.7%. The surface propagated defects were increased with increasing the Sn content in the GeSn layer confirmed by TEM analysis. And we could calculate the activation energies at lower GeSn growth temperature regime using by Ge2H6 and SnCl4 precursors about 0.43 eV.
Graphical Abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Khurelbaatar, Z., Kil, Y.-H., Kim, T.S., Shim, K.-H., Hong, H., Choi, C.-J.: Optoelectronic characterization of infrared photodetector fabricated on Ge-on-Si substrate. J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 15, 1 (2015)
Moontragoon, P., Ikonić, Z., Harrison, P.: Band structure calculation of Si–Ge–Sn alloys: Achieving direct band gap materials. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 22, 742 (2007)
Thurmond, C.D., Trumbore, F.A., Kowalchik, M.: Germanium solidus curves. J. Chem. Phys. 25, 799 (1956)
Lieten, R.R., Seo, J.W., Decoster, S., Vantomme, A., Peters, S., Bustillo, K.C., Haller, E.E., Menghini, M., Locquet, J.-P.: Tensile strained GeSn on Si by solid phase epitaxy. Appl. Phy. Lett. 102, 052106 (2013)
Sadoh, T., Ooato, A., Park, J.-H., Miyao, M.: High Sn-concentration (~ 8%) GeSn by low-temperature (~ 150 °C) solid-phase epitaxy of a-GeSn/c-Ge. Thin Solid Films 602, 20 (2016)
Werner, J., Oehme, M., Schmid, M., Kaschel, M., Schirmer, A., Kasper, E., Schulze, J.: Germanium-tin p-i-n photodetectors integrated on silicon grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Appl. Phy. Lett. 98, 061108 (2011)
Gupta, J.P., Bhargava, N., Kim, S., Adam, T., Kolodzey, J.: Infrared electroluminescence from GeSn heterojunction diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Appl. Phy. Lett. 102, 251117 (2013)
Bhargava, N., Coppinger, M., Gupta, J.P., Wielunski, L., Kolodzey, J.: Lattice constant and substitutional composition of GeSn alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Appl. Phy. Lett. 103, 041908 (2013)
Talochkin, A.B., Mashanov, V.I.: Formation of GeSn alloy on Si(100) by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy. Appl. Phy. Lett. 105, 263101 (2014)
Wang, W., Zhou, Q., Dong, Y., Tok, E.S., Yeo, Y.-C.: Critical thickness for strain relaxation of Ge1-xSnx (x ≤ 0.17) grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Ge(001). Appl. Phy. Lett. 106, 232106 (2015)
Wirths, S., Buca, D., Tiedemann, A.T., Holländer, B., Bernardy, P., Stoica, T., Grützmacher, D., Mantl, S.: Epitaxial growth of Ge1-xSnx by reduced pressure CVD using SnCl4 and Ge2H6. ECS Trans. 50, 885 (2012)
Gencarelli, F., Vincent, B., Demeulemeester, J., Vantomme, A., Moussa, A., Franquet, A., Kumar, A., Bender, H., Meersschaut, J., Vandervorst, W., Loo, R., Caymax, M., Temst, K., Heynsa, M.: Crystalline properties and strain relaxation mechanism of CVD grown GeSn. ECS J. Solid State Sci. and Technol. 2, 134 (2013)
Wirths, S., Buca, D., Mussler, G., Tiedemann, A.T., Hollander, B., Bernardy, P., Stoica, T., Grutzmacher, D., Mantl, S.: Reduced pressure CVD growth of Ge and Ge1-xSnx alloys. ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol. 2, N99 (2013)
Mosleh, A., Ghetmiri, S.A., Conley, B.R., Hawkridge, M., Benamara, M., Nazzal, A., Tolle, J., Yu, S.-Q., Naseem, H.A.: Material Characterization of Ge1-xSnx Alloys Grown by a Commercial CVD System for Optoelectronic Device Applications”. Journal of Electronic Materials 43, 938 (2014)
Wang, L., Wang, W., Zhou, Q., Pan, J., Zhang, Z., Tok, E.S., Yeo, Y.-C.: Post-growth annealing of germanium-tin alloys using pulsed excimer laser. J. Appl. Phys. 118, 025701 (2015)
Zhang, X., Zhang, D., Cheng, B., Liu, Z., Zhang, G., Xue, C., Wang, Q.: Crystal quality improvement of GeSn alloys by thermal annealing. ECS Solid State Lett. 3, P127 (2014)
Li, H., Chang, C., Chen, T.P., Cheng, H.H., Shi, Z.W., Chen, H.: Characteristics of Sn segregation in Ge/GeSn heterostructures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 151906 (2014)
Takeuchi, S., Shimura, Y., Nakatsuka, O., Zaima, S., Ogawa, M., Sakai, A.: Growth of highly strain-relaxed Ge1-xSnx/virtual Ge by a Sn precipitation controlled compositionally step-graded method. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 231916 (2008)
Kil, Y.-H., Yuk, S.-H., Kim, J.H., Kim, T.S., Kim, Y.T., Choi, C.-J., Shim, K.-H.: The low temperature epitaxy of Ge on Si (100) substrate using two different precursors of GeH4 and Ge2H6. Solid State Electron. 124, 35 (2016)
Beeler, R., Roucka, R., Chizmeshya, A.V.G., Kouvetakis, J., Menendez, J.: Nonlinear structure-composition relationships in the Ge1-ySny/Si(100) (y < 0.15) system. Phys. Rev. B 82, 035204 (2011)
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Future Semiconductor Device Technology Development Program (Grant No. 10044651) funded By MOTIE (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) and KSRC (Korea Semiconductor Research Consortium). It was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant (NRF-2017R1A2B2003365) funded by the Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea. XRD samples were analyzed by Multi-Function X-ray Diffractometer (EMPYREAN, PANalytical) installed in the Center for Daegu Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kil, YH., Yuk, SH., Jang, HS. et al. The Low Temperature Epitaxy of Strained GeSn Layers Using RTCVD System. Electron. Mater. Lett. 14, 207–213 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-018-0022-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-018-0022-5