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    Bottom-up assembly of metallic germanium
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Scappucci, Giordano; Klesse, Wolfgang M.; Yeoh, LaReine A.; Carter, Damien J.; Warschkow, Oliver; Marks, Nigel A.; Jaeger, David L.; Capellini, Giovanni; Simmons, Michelle Y.; Hamilton, Alexander R.
    Extending chip performance beyond current limits of miniaturisation requires new materials and functionalities that integrate well with the silicon platform. Germanium fits these requirements and has been proposed as a high-mobility channel material, a light emitting medium in silicon-integrated lasers, and a plasmonic conductor for bio-sensing. Common to these diverse applications is the need for homogeneous, high electron densities in three-dimensions (3D). Here we use a bottom-up approach to demonstrate the 3D assembly of atomically sharp doping profiles in germanium by a repeated stacking of two-dimensional (2D) high-density phosphorus layers. This produces high-density (1019 to 1020 cm−3) low-resistivity (10−4Ω · cm) metallic germanium of precisely defined thickness, beyond the capabilities of diffusion-based doping technologies. We demonstrate that free electrons from distinct 2D dopant layers coalesce into a homogeneous 3D conductor using anisotropic quantum interference measurements, atom probe tomography, and density functional theory.
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    Dislocation-free Ge nano-crystals via pattern independent selective Ge heteroepitaxy on Si nano-tip wafers
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Niu, Gang; Capellini, Giovanni; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Niermann, Tore; Zaumseil, Peter; Katzer, Jens; Krause, Hans-Michael; Skibitzki, Oliver; Lehmann, Michael; Xie, Ya-Hong; von Känel, Hans; Schroeder, Thomas
    The integration of dislocation-free Ge nano-islands was realized via selective molecular beam epitaxy on Si nano-tip patterned substrates. The Si-tip wafers feature a rectangular array of nanometer sized Si tips with (001) facet exposed among a SiO2 matrix. These wafers were fabricated by complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible nanotechnology. Calculations based on nucleation theory predict that the selective growth occurs close to thermodynamic equilibrium, where condensation of Ge adatoms on SiO2 is disfavored due to the extremely short re-evaporation time and diffusion length. The growth selectivity is ensured by the desorption-limited growth regime leading to the observed pattern independence, i.e. the absence of loading effect commonly encountered in chemical vapor deposition. The growth condition of high temperature and low deposition rate is responsible for the observed high crystalline quality of the Ge islands which is also associated with negligible Si-Ge intermixing owing to geometric hindrance by the Si nano-tip approach. Single island as well as area-averaged characterization methods demonstrate that Ge islands are dislocation-free and heteroepitaxial strain is fully relaxed. Such well-ordered high quality Ge islands present a step towards the achievement of materials suitable for optical applications.