Band gap renormalization in n-type Ge and GeSn alloys made by millisecond range flash lamp annealing

The last missing piece of puzzle for the full functionalization of group IV optoelectronic devices is the direct band gap semiconductor made by CMOS compatible technology. Here we report on the fabrication of GeSn alloys with a Sn concentration of up to 6 % using ion implantation followed by ms-range explosive solid phase epitaxy. The n-type single crystalline GeSn alloys are made by co-doping of Sn and P into Ge. Both the activation of P and the formation of GeSn are performed during a single-step flash lamp annealing for 3 ms. The band gap engineering in ultra-doped n-type Ge and GeSn alloys is theoretically predicted by density functional theory and experimentally verified using ellipsometric spectroscopy. We demonstrate that both the diffusion and the segregation of Sn and P atoms in Ge are fully supressed by ms-range non-equilibrium thermal processing.