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We report the observation of large scale self-assembly of long horizontal nanowires into orthogonally oriented bundles, during in situ annealing of a few monolayers of Ge on Si(001). Results are interpreted in terms of a collective wave-propagation mechanism, previously suggested for interpreting ripple faceting on Ge/Si(1110) surfaces. Quantitative agreement between experiments and theory is found. The onset of the mechanism, the number of wires in the bundles, and their total density can be controlled by carefully tuning the growth parameters.

Ge/Si(001) is a prototypical system for investigating three-dimensional island self-assembly owed to the Stranski-Krastanow growth mode. More than twenty years of research have produced an impressive amount of results, together with various theoretical interpretations. It is commonly believed that lattice-mismatch strain relief is the major driving force leading to the formation of these islands. However, a set of recent results on Si(001) and vicinals point out that, under suitable conditions, this is not the case. Indeed, we here review experimental and theoretical results dealing with nanostructures mainly determined by surface-energy minimization. Results are intriguing, as they reveal the existence of magic sizes, show the presence of very peculiar morphologies, such as micron-long wires, and distinguish among attempts to facet the wetting-layer and true SK islands.

Dense arrays of micrometric crystals, with areal filling up to 93%, are obtained by depositing GaAs in a mask-less molecular beam epitaxy process onto Si substrates. The substrates are patterned into tall, micron sized pillars. Faceted high aspect ratio GaAs crystals are achieved by tuning the Ga adatom for short surface diffusion lengths. The crystals exhibit bulk-like optical quality due to defect termination at the sidewalls. Simultaneously, the thermal strain induced by different thermal expansion parameters of GaAs and Si is fully relieved. This opens the route to thick film applications without crack formation and wafer bowing. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

Three decades of achievements in epitaxial deposition of semiconductor layers on silicon form the basis for the present optoelectronic devices, such as semiconductor lasers and detectors. Actually, the strain induced by different lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficients offers additional degrees of freedom for tailoring material properties, but often at the expense of dislocation generation, wafer bowing and cracks. Such drawbacks can be eliminated by growing, onto deeply patterned Si substrates, space filling arrays of high-quality strain-free Ge prisms up to tens of micrometers in height, while avoiding their merging. The method opens the way to applications requiring pixelated thick films, e.g. high-resolution radiation and particle imaging detectors, monolithically integrated onto CMOS platforms.

The fabrication of advanced devices increasingly requires materials with different properties to be combined in the form of monolithic heterostructures. In practice this means growing epitaxial semiconductor layers on substrates often greatly differing in lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficients. With increasing layer thickness the relaxation of misfit and thermal strains may cause dislocations, substrate bowing and even layer cracking. Minimizing these drawbacks is therefore essential for heterostructures based on thick layers to be of any use for device fabrication. Here we prove by scanning X-ray nanodiffraction that mismatched Ge crystals epitaxially grown on deeply patterned Si substrates evolve into perfect structures away from the heavily dislocated interface. We show that relaxing thermal and misfit strains result just in lattice bending and tiny crystal tilts. We may thus expect a new concept in which continuous layers are replaced by quasi-continuous crystal arrays to lead to dramatically improved physical properties

An innovative strategy in dislocation analysis, based on comparison between continuous and tessellated film, demonstrates that vertical dislocations, extending straight up to the surface, easily dominate in thick Ge layers on Si(001) substrates. The complete elimination of dislocations is achieved by growing self-aligned and self-limited Ge microcrystals with fully faceted growth fronts, as demonstrated by AFM extensive etch-pit counts

We studied the plastic deformation of an ultrathin silicon-on-insulator with epitaxial Si1−xGex by transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and finite-element method. We analyzed a top Si layer of 10 nm (testing also a 2 nm layer) with epitaxial Si0.64Ge0.36 stressors of 50 and 100 nm. SiGe plastically deforms the top Si layer, and this strain remains even when Si1−xGex is removed. For low dislocation densities, dislocations are gettered close to the Si/SiO2 interface, while the SiGe/Si interface is coherent. Beyond a threshold dislocation density, interactions between dislocations force additional dislocations to position at the Si1−xGex/Si interface.

This work reports recent results related to Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells obtained using an alternative approach for CIGS growth. Such original approach consists of sputtering deposition of the metal elements combined with selenium co-evaporation, which allows deposition time of the CIGS layer lower than 30 min, matching industrial application requirements. The cylindrical geometry of the deposition chamber can be exploited for a continuous process (roll-to roll approach) and different substrates can be used (11x14 cm2 soda lime glass and 120x14 cm2 stainless steel). Minimodules on glass substrates composed by 14 cells (37x4 mm2) were fabricated obtaining a maximum open circuit voltage of 6681 mV. Test solar cells of 0.5 cm2 on flexible stainless steel substrates have shown an efficiency of 11.9%.

Monolithic integration of dissimilar materials with Si microelectronics by hetero-epitaxial growth, a process by means of which all the components are manufactured on the same piece of Si substrate, has been an active research topic for many years. The epitaxial growth of layers differing in lattice parameter and thermal expansion coefficients poses, however, a number of problems detrimental to device processing, yield and performance, such as dislocations, wafer bowing or even layer cracks. The latter become especially relevant at larger layer thicknesses, required for a number of applications, such as high-brightness LEDs, power electronic devices, multi-junction solar cells. We eliminated these disadvantages by a new approach in which layers are partitioned into arrays of disconnected single crystals by a mechanism of self-limited lateral growth. Our approach, tested so far for group IV epitaxy, consists of the following steps. First a Si substrate is patterned into high-aspect ratio pillars or ridges by conventional photolithography and deep reactive ion etching, to expose limited areas on which to grow Ge and Si 1-xGe x layers. Subsequent epitaxial growth by low energy plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (LEPECVD) takes advantage both of geometric shielding of the growth species arriving at the patterned substrate surface, as well as of growth parameters (e.g. low temperature, high growth rate) designed to limit the surface diffusion length, thus favoring vertical over lateral growth. This results in a uniform space-filling array of three dimensional epitaxial crystals. Surprisingly, the observed self-limited lateral expansion leaves an air gap between the neighboring crystals of the order of just several tens of nanometers, thus preventing their coalescence. The formation of these arrays was found to be remarkably independent of the thickness of the deposit and the details of the substrate patterns. It does not even depend on the lattice and thermal mism

In the quest for a Ge x-ray detector mono-lithically integrated onto a Si-CMOS chip we developed a novel method for combining dissimilar materials that may provide a solution to the main problems of heteroepitaxy, e.g. high threading dislocation densities, wafer bowing and cracks. It consists of replacing the conventional continuous layers by space-filling arrays of strain- and defect-free Ge crystals, the width, height and shape of which are controlled by tuning epitaxial growth onto micrometer-sized features deeply etched into Si-substrates. Heterojunctions formed between the Ge-crystals and the Si-substrate exhibit the required rectifying diode behavior with low dark currents (<1 mA/cm2).

CuInSe2-based solar cells showed long-term stability and the highest conversion efficiencies among thin film solar cells, overcoming 20%. The optoelectronic properties of the absorber layers and interfaces are strongly dependent upon the deposition method and strictly related to the solar cell efficiency. In this work, an alternative approach for CIGS thin film growth has been developed and tested. Such approach consists of sputtering deposition of the metal elements combined with selenium co-evaporation, which allows deposition time of the CIGS layer lower than 30 min, matching industrial application requirements. The relationships between the growth parameters of such hybrid sputtering/evaporation method and the chemical-physical properties of the CIGS films have been studied. The CIGS cell performances have been monitored by External Quantum Efficiency measurements and I-V measurements. Test solar cells of 0.5 cm(2) have shown an efficiency of 14% on glass substrates

We show that suitable pit-patterning of a Si(001) substrate can strongly influence the nucleation and the propagation of dislocations during epitaxial deposition of Si-rich Si1-xGex alloys, preferentially gettering misfit segments along pit rows. In particular, for a 250 nm layer deposited by molecular beam epitaxy at x(Ge) - 15%, extended film regions appear free of dislocations, by atomic force microscopy, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy sampling. This result is quite general, as explained by dislocation dynamics simulations, which reveal the key role of the inhomogeneous distribution in stress produced by the pit-patterning.

SiGe heteroepitaxy on vicinal Si (1 1 10) is studied as a model system for one-dimensional (1D) to three-dimensional growth mode transitions. By in situ scanning tunneling microscopy it is shown that the 1D-3D transition proceeds smoothly from perfectly facetted 1D nanoripples to coarsened superripples, tadpoles, asymmetric domes, and barns without involving coalescence or agglomeration. By extension of the studies to a wide range of SiGe compositions, a 1D-3D growth phase diagram is obtained. Total energy calculations reveal that the observed critical transition volumes are fully consistent with thermodynamic driven strain relaxation.

A simple, but still three-dimensional, model describing the morphological stability of realistic SiGe islands on Si(001) is presented. The experimental evolution toward steeper islands with volume can be predicted for any average composition. Despite the use of elastic theory for stress relaxation under the assumption of a uniform SiGe distribution, and of a common mean surface energy of the faceted islands, the model seems to capture the essence of the energetic balance determining the morphological evolution with volume, with no fitting parameters. This is suggested by close comparison with molecular beam epitaxy data at three different temperatures (i.e. compositions). The good agreement also allows for interpreting the minor scattering of experimental data with temperature and provides a reliable tool for extracting the average Ge content from standard atomic force microscopy analysis.

Self-assembled Ge wires with a height of only 3 unit cells and a length of up to 2 micrometers were grown on Si(001) by means of a catalyst-free method based on molecular beam epitaxy. The wires grow horizontally along either the [100] or the [010] direction. On atomically flat surfaces, they exhibit a highly uniform, triangular cross section. A simple thermodynamic model accounts for the existence of a preferential base width for longitudinal expansion, in quantitative agreement with the experimental findings. Despite the absence of intentional doping, the first transistor-type devices made from single wires show low-resistive electrical contacts and single-hole transport at sub-Kelvin temperatures. In view of their exceptionally small and self-defined cross section, these Ge wires hold promise for the realization of hole systems with exotic properties and provide a new development route for silicon-based nanoelectronics.

Quantum structures made from epitaxial semiconductor layers have revolutionized our understanding of low-dimensional systems and are used for ultrafast transistors, semiconductor lasers, and detectors. Strain induced by different lattice parameters and thermal properties offers additional degrees of freedom for tailoring materials, but often at the expense of dislocation generation, wafer bowing, and cracks. We eliminated these drawbacks by fast, low-temperature epitaxial growth of Ge and SiGe crystals onto micrometer-scale tall pillars etched into Si(001) substrates. Faceted crystals were shown to be strain- and defect-free by x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and defect etching. They formed space-filling arrays up to tens of micrometers in height by a mechanism of self-limited lateral growth. The mechanism is explained by reduced surface diffusion and flux shielding by nearest-neighbor crystals.

Ge growth on high-indexed Si (1110) is shown to result in the spontaneous formation of a perfectly {105} faceted one-dimensional nanoripple structure. This evolution differs from the usual Stranski-Krastanow growth mode because from initial ripple seeds a faceted Ge layer is formed that extends down to the heterointerface. Ab initio calculations reveal that ripple formation is mainly driven by lowering of surface energy rather than by elastic strain relief and the onset is governed by the edge energy of the ripple facets. Wavelike ripple replication is identified as an effective kinetic pathway for the transformation process.

Ge/Si is popularly considered as the prototypical example of a system following the Stransky-Krastanow (SK) growth modality. Despite being truly simpler than other SK systems, Ge/Si displays remarkably fascinating physics, starting from the very onset of island formation, discussed in detail in this chapter with the help of a combined theoretical and experimental analysis. Complex phenomena following nucleation of 3D structures, such as Si/Ge intermixing and island ordering, are also described and interpreted with the use of simple theory. Some recent findings, likely to trigger further research in the coming years, are finally summarized in the concluding future trends section.

The potential of strained DOTFET technology is demonstrated. This technology uses a SiGe island as a stressor for a Si capping layer, into which the transistor channel is integrated. The structure information of fabricated samples is extracted from atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. Strain on the upper surface of a 30 nm thick Si layer is in the range of 0.7%, as supported by finite element calculations. The Ge content in the SiGe island is 30% on average, showing an increase towards the top of the island. Based on the extracted structure information, three-dimensional strain profiles are calculated and device simulations are performed. Up to 15% enhancement of the NMOS saturation current is predicted

n this work, an alternative approach for CIGS thin film growth has been tested, which is different from the common co-evaporation process. Such approach consists of sputtering deposition of the metal elements combined with selenium evaporation. This new and easily scalable procedure allows deposition time of the CIGS layer lower than 15 minutes and can be easily applied not only on rigid but also on flexible substrates in a roll to roll configuration, matching industrial application requirements. The relationships between the growth parameters of such hybrid sputtering/evaporation method and the chemical-physical properties of the CIGS films and cells have been studied

We demonstrate the possibility of growing SiGe islands on patterned Si(001) substrates with pits having a continuous variation of the sidewall inclination angle alpha from alpha similar to 4 degrees to alpha similar to 54 degrees. Experiments show that the pit-inclination angle critically affects island positioning. While for shallow pits (pit-sidewall inclination angle alpha < similar to 30 degrees) islands are observed solely within the pits, at higher angles islands grow outside the pits. In particular a progressive (complete at alpha similar to 54 degrees) decoration of the pit rim by several islands is observed. We use elasticity theory to compare strain relaxation of a single island inside and outside the pit, as a function of alpha. The theoretical results show that there exists an elastic driving force for island positioning inside shallow enough pits, which reaches its maximum at alpha similar to 20 degrees and changes sign for alpha > 40 degrees. At the same time, the calculations indicate a progressive relaxation of the wetting layer (WL) outside the pit with increasing alpha. The consistency between numerical results and experimental observations gives a clear indication on the important role played by the elastic relaxation in this system.

Ordering of misfit dislocation segments in concentric polygons at the base of SiGe epitaxial islands on Si(001) has been recently indicated by in situ Transmission Electron Microscope observation. In this paper we confirm the very regular spacing by Atomic Force Microscope and He-ion Microscope measurements of the footprint carved in the Si substrate by the plastic events. We explain the intriguing ordering, as obtained with no gliding rearrangements, by cyclic occurrence of the thermodynamic critical conditions for plastic events. Quantitative predictions by a fully analytical model, which includes the dependence on island shape and composition in the generation of misfit dislocations, matched very well experimental measurements.

The onset of plastic relaxation in SiGe islands grown on pit-patterned Si(001) substrates is investigated using elasticity theory solved by finite element methods. Larger critical island volumes with respect to the unpatterned case are predicted. A justification based on the qualitatively different stressors acting on the substrate in the presence of pits is provided. Experimental results in terms of critical SiGe-island volumes as a function of the Ge content are nicely reproduced by the model.

In this paper we report a new method for Cu(In,Ga)Se(2) deposition for solar cell application. Differently from the common co-evaporation process, an alterative approach for thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se(2) has been tested: the sputtering deposition of metal elements combined with the selenium evaporation. We have studied the relationships between the growth parameters of our hybrid sputtering/evaporation method and the chemical-physical properties of the CIGS films. The cells are completed with a CdS buffer layer deposited by chemical bath deposition and ZnO + ITO deposited by RF sputtering. Test solar cells of 0.5 cm(2) have shown an efficiency of 10% and 2.5% on glass and stainless steel substrate respectively. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

The potentials of using silicon-germanium dots as stressor material in MOSFETs are evaluated with respect to integration in today's production processes. Work is reviewed that has lead to the fabrication of the first experimental n-channel MOSFETs on SiGe dots, referred to as DotFETs, in a low-complexity, custom-made low-temperature process where the dot is preserved during the entire device processing. The SiGe dots were grown in large regular arrays in a Stranski-Krastanow (S-K) mode and used to induce biaxial tensile strain in a silicon capping-layer. The DotFETs are processed with the main gate-segment above the strained Si layer on a single dot. To prevent intermixing of the Si/SiGe/Si structure, the processing temperature is kept below 400 °C by using excimer-laser annealing to activate the source/drain implants that are self-aligned to a metal gate. The crystallinity of the structure is preserved throughout the processing and, compared to reference devices, an average increase in drain current up to 22.5% is obtained. The experimental results are substantiated by extensive simulations and modeling of the strain levels in capped dots and the corresponding mobility enhancement achievable with DotFETs. The concept of SiGe dots overgrown with a Si layer is also considered for use as a starting structure for silicon-on-nothing (SON) technology where the dot should be removed after the formation of the gate-stack and the strain for mobility enhancement should be preserved (and possibly increased) via the other device layers.

We demonstrate dislocation engineering without oxide masks. By using finite element simulations we show how nanopatterning of Si substrates with {111} trenches provides anisotropic elastic relaxation in a SiGe film, generates preferential nucleation sites for dislocation loops, and allows for dislocation trapping, leaving wide areas free of threading dislocations. These predictions are confirmed by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy performed on overcritical Si0.7 Ge0.3 films. These were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a Si(001) substrate patterned with periodic arrays of selectively etched {111}-terminated trenches. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.

The shape of coherent SiGe islands epitaxially grown on pit-patterned Si(001) substrates displays very uniform collective oscillations with increasing Ge deposition, transforming cyclically between shallower "dome'' and steeper "barn'' morphologies. Correspondingly, the average Ge content in the alloyed islands also displays an oscillatory behavior, superimposed on a progressive Si enrichment with increasing size. We show that such a growth mode, remarkably different from the flat-substrate case, allows the islands to keep growing in size while avoiding plastic relaxation

The silicon germanium dots grown in the StranskiKrastanow mode are used to induce biaxial tensile strain in a silicon capping layer. A high Ge content and correspondingly high Si strain levels are reached due to the 3-D growth of the dots. The n-channel MOS devices, referred to in this letter as DotFETs, are processed with the main gate segment above the strained Si layer on a single dot. To prevent the intermixing of the Si/SiGe/Si structure, a novel low-temperature FET structure processed below 400 °C has been implemented: The ultrashallow source/drain junctions formed by excimer-laser annealing in the full-melt mode of ion-implanted dopants are self-aligned to a metal gate. The crystallinity of the structure is preserved throughout the processing, and compared to reference devices, an average increase in the drain current of up to 22.5% is obtained. © 2006 IEEE.

Diffusion and decomposition of SiHx species adsorbed on the clean Si(100) surface are processes of relevance for the growth of crystalline silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. In this work, we report an extensive search of diffusion and decomposition pathways for SiH3, SiH2, and SiH by means of combined ab initio metadynamics simulations and optimization of minimum-energy reactions paths. We find that on the clean surface SiH3 undergoes stepwise decompositions into Si and H adatoms according to SiH3 → SiH2 +H→SiH+2H→Si+3H with an overall reaction barrier of the order of 0.8 eV, consistent with the scenario inferred from secondary ion mass spectroscopy data. The lifetime of SiH3 at room temperature calculated within transition state theory in the harmonic approximation is in agreement with experiments. The lifetime of SiH2 turns out to be similar to that of SiH3. Possible trap states for SiH2 are proposed, based on energetics and by comparing calculated scanning tunneling microscope images with experimental data. © 2009 The American Physical Society.

We compare elastic relaxation and Si-Ge distribution in epitaxial islands grown on both pit-patterned and flat Si(001) substrates. Anomalous x-ray diffraction yields that nucleation in the pits provides a higher relaxation. Using an innovative, model-free fitting procedure based on self-consistent solutions of the elastic problem, we provide compositional and elastic-energy maps. Islands grown on flat substrates exhibit stronger composition gradients and do not show a monotonic decrease of elastic energy with height. Both phenomena are explained using both thermodynamic and kinetic arguments.

We report original finite element method simulations of the strain components at nanometric GeSi island on Si(0 0 1), for realistic shape, sizes and average composition, discussing the main mechanisms acting in the misfit strain relaxation. The tensile strain induced in a 30nm Si capping layer and the one upon removing the island, after fixing the top part of the Si layer, is discussed in view of application as a field effect transistor channel, with high career mobility induced by the lattice deformation. The large shear components obtained for steeper island morphologies are predicted to be particularly performing, especially in comparison to one another strained-silicon configuration (totally top-down originated), recently developed by IBM corporation.

A joint theoretical and experimental analysis of the crystalline fraction in nanocrystalline films grown by low-energy plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is presented. The effect of key growth parameters such as temperature, silane flux, and hydrogen dilution ratio is analyzed and modeled at the atomic scale, introducing an environment-dependent crystallization probability. A very good agreement between experiments and theory is found, despite the use of a single fitting parameter. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

By means of resonant Raman spectroscopy we investigated the strain on a single ultrathin crystalline silicon layer, locally induced by buried SiGe nanostructures. The spectrum of a 5-nm-thick silicon layer on top of SiGe islands shows a single highly strained feature attributed to the out-of-plane phonon. The direct comparison of the experimental results with finite-element methods through spectral simulation shows excellent agreement that clarifies the physical origin of the spectrum. An increase in the silicon layer thickness up to 40 nm results in a progressive reduction in the strain

Vertical arrays of sealed nanofluidic channels, in which both cross-sectional dimensions are controllable down to 10 nm, were fabricated by selective side etching of a SiGe heterostructure comprised of layers of alternating Ge fractions. Capillary filling of these nanochannel arrays with fluorescent dye solutions was investigated using a confocal microscope. The feasibility of using nanochannels for size-based separation of biomolecules was demonstrated by imaging aggregates of tagged amyloid-beta peptide. The ability to integrate a large number of nanochannels shows promise for high throughput applications involving lab-on-a-chip systems.

The commonly accepted Stranski-Krastanow model, according to which island formation occurs on top of a wetting layer (WL) of a certain thickness, predicts for the morphological evolution an increasing island aspect ratio with volume. We report on an apparent violation of this thermodynamic understanding of island growth with deposition. In order to investigate the actual onset of three-dimensional islanding and the critical WL thickness in the Ge/Si(001) system, a key issue is controlling the Ge deposition with extremely high resolution [0.025 monolayer (ML)]. Atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence measurements on samples covering the deposition range 1.75-6.1 ML, taken along a Ge deposition gradient on 4 in. Si substrates and at different growth temperatures (Tg), surprisingly reveal that for Tg >675°C steeper multifaceted domes apparently nucleate prior to shallow {105}-faceted pyramids, in a narrow commonly overlooked deposition range. The puzzling experimental findings are explained by a quantitative modeling of the total energy with deposition. We accurately matched ab initio calculations of layer and surface energies to finite-element method simulations of the elastic energy in islands, in order to compare the thermodynamic stability of different island shapes with respect to an increasing WL thickness. Close agreement between modeling and experiments is found, pointing out that the sizeable progressive lowering of the surface energy in the first few MLs of the WL reverts the common understanding of the SK growth onset. Strong similarities between islanding in SiGe and III/V systems are highlighted. © 2009 The American Physical Society.

Car-Parrinello simulations and static density-functional theory calculations reveal how hydrogen promotes growth of epitaxial, ordered Si films in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low-temperature conditions where the exposed Si(001)-(2×1) surface is fully hydrogenated. Thermal H atoms, indeed, are shown to selectively etch adsorbed silyl back to the gas phase or to form adsorbed species which can be easily incorporated into the crystal down to T∼200°C and start diffusing around T∼300°C. Our results are well consistent with earlier experiments. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Substrate pre-patterning is a new and effective route for growing ordered arrays of heteroepitaxial nanoislands. Here, by exploiting elasticity theory solved by using finite element methods, we show why islands growing inside pits are better relaxed with respect to the flat-substrate case. Pit pre-patterning is demonstrated to be more important than previously realized, allowing for further degrees of freedom in controlling not only positioning but also shape, strain, and coherence of the growing islands. Our results offer a solid interpretation for the recent experimental results obtained by the group of Professor Günther Bauer. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.