Search

$\rm{Ge}_{1-x-y}Si_{x}Sn_{y}$ alloys were grown on Ge buffer layers at ultra-low temperature using reactions of $\rm SnH_{4}$ and $\rm GeH_{3}Cl$ for the first time. The latter is a newly introduced CVD source designed for epitaxial development of group IV semiconductors under low thermal budgets and CMOS compatible conditions. The $\rm{Ge}_{1-x-y}Si_{x}Sn_{y}$ films were produced between 160-200oC with 3-5% Si and ~ 5-11 % Sn, which traverses the indirect to direct gap transition in Ge-Sn materials. The films were fully strained to Ge and exhibited defect-free microstructures, flat surfaces, homogeneous compositions, uniform thicknesses and sharp interfaces as required for device manufacturing. A comparative study was then conducted to investigate the applicability of $\rm GeH_{3}Cl$ for the synthesis of $\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$ binaries under similar experimental conditions. The$\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$ films were grown fully strained to Ge, but with reduced Sn compositions ranging from ~ 2 - 7 % and lower thicknesses relative to $\rm{Ge}_{1-x-y}Si_{x}Sn_{y}$. This prompted efforts to further investigate the growth behavior of $\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$ using the $\rm GeH_{3}Cl$ method, bypassing the Ge buffer to produce samples directly on Si, with the aim of exploring how to manage interface strain. In this case the $\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$ on Si films exhibited compositions and thicknesses comparable to $\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$-on-Ge films; however, their strain states were mostly relaxed, presumably due to the large misfit between $\rm Ge_{1-y}Sn_{y}$ and Si. Efforts to increase the concentration and thickness of these samples resulted in non-homogeneous multi-phase materials containing large amounts of interstitial Sn impurities., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

A practical quantitative model is presented to account for the I-V characteristics of pin diodes based on epitaxial Ge-like materials. The model can be used to quantify how the different material properties and recombination mechanisms affect the diode performance. The importance of dislocations, non-passivated defects, and residual intrinsic layer doping in determining the qualitative shape of the I-V curves is discussed in detail. Examples are shown covering literature diodes as well as diodes fabricated with the purpose of validating the theoretical effort., Comment: 18 pages. This article has been submitted to the Journal of Applied Physics. After it is published, it will be found at https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jap

A consistent methodology is presented to extract carrier concentrations in n-type Ge from measurements of the infrared dielectric function and the Hall effect. In the case of the optical measurements, usually carried out using spectroscopic ellipsometry, the carrier concentration is affected by the doping dependence of the conductivity effective mass, which is computed using a model of the electronic density of states that accounts for non-parabolicity and is fit to electronic structure calculations. Carrier concentrations obtained from Hall measurements require a knowledge of the Hall factor, which is arbitrarily set equal to unit in most practical applications. We have calculated the Hall factor for n-Ge using a model that accounts for scattering with phonons and with ionized impurities. We show that determinations of the carrier concentration n using our computed effective mass and Hall factor virtually eliminates any systematic discrepancy between the two types of measurement. We then use these results to compute majority carrier mobilities from measured resistivity values, to compare with measurements of minority carrier mobilities, and to fit empirical expressions to the doping dependence of the mobilities that can be used to model Ge devices., Comment: 11 pages, 5 fgures

We report a photoluminescence study of high-quality Ge samples at temperatures 12 K $\leq$ T $\leq$ 295 K, over a spectral range that covers phonon-assisted emission from the indirect gap (between the lowest conduction band at the L point of the Brillouin zone and the top of the valence band at the $\Gamma$ point), as well as direct gap emission (from the local minimum of the conduction band at the $\Gamma$ point). The spectra display a rich structure with a rapidly changing lineshape as a function of T. A theory is developed to account for the experimental results using analytical expressions for the contributions from LA, TO, LO, and TA phonons. Coupling of states exactly at the $\Gamma$ and L points is forbidden by symmetry for the latter two phonon modes, but becomes allowed for nearby states and can be accounted for using wave-vector dependent deformation potentials. Excellent agreement is obtained between predicted and observed photoluminescence lineshapes. A decomposition of the predicted signal in terms of the different phonon contributions implies that near room temperature indirect optical absorption and emission are dominated by forbidden processes, and the deformation potentials for allowed processes are smaller than previously assumed., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures

$\text{Ge}_{1-y}\text{Sn}_y$ alloys with compositions in the 0.15 < $y$ < 0.30 range have been grown directly on Si substrates using a chemical vapor deposition approach that allows for growth temperatures as high as 290 $^{\circ}$C. The films show structural properties that are consistent with results from earlier materials with much lower Sn concentrations. These include the lattice parameter and the Ge-Ge Raman frequency, which are found to depend linearly on composition. The simplicity of the structures, directly grown on Si, makes it possible to carry out detailed optical studies. Sharp absorption edges are found, reaching 8 $\mu$m near $y$ =0.3. The compositional dependence of edge energies shows a cubic deviation from the standard quadratic alloy expression. The cubic term may dramatically impact the ability of the alloys to cover the long-wavelength (8-12 $\mu$m) mid-IR atmospheric window.