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    Operando diagnostic detection of interfacial oxygen ‘breathing’ of resistive random access memory by bulk-sensitive hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
    (London [u.a.] : Taylor & Francis, 2019) Niu, Gang; Calka, Pauline; Huang, Peng; Sharath, Sankaramangalam Ulhas; Petzold, Stefan; Gloskovskii, Andrei; Fröhlich, Karol; Zhao, Yudi; Kan, Jinfeng; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Bärwolf, Florian; Ren, Wei; Ye, Zuo-Guang; Perez, Eduardo; Wenger, Christian; Alff, Lambert; Schroeder, Thomas
    The HfO2-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) is one of the most promising candidates for non-volatile memory applications. The detection and examination of the dynamic behavior of oxygen ions/vacancies are crucial to deeply understand the microscopic physical nature of the resistive switching (RS) behavior. By using synchrotron radiation based, non-destructive and bulk-sensitive hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES), we demonstrate an operando diagnostic detection of the oxygen ‘breathing’ behavior at the oxide/metal interface, namely, oxygen migration between HfO2 and TiN during different RS periods. The results highlight the significance of oxide/metal interfaces in RRAM, even in filament-type devices. IMPACT STATEMENT: The oxygen ‘breathing’ behavior at the oxide/metal interface of filament-type resistive random access memory devices is operandoly detected using hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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    Towards the Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Ge(001)/Si Substrates by Chemical Vapor Deposition
    (Basel : MDPI, 2022) Franck, Max; Dabrowski, Jaroslaw; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Wenger, Christian; Lukosius, Mindaugas
    The growth of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on epitaxial Ge(001)/Si substrates via high-vacuum chemical vapor deposition from borazine is investigated for the first time in a systematic manner. The influences of the process pressure and growth temperature in the range of 10−7–10−3 mbar and 900–980 °C, respectively, are evaluated with respect to morphology, growth rate, and crystalline quality of the hBN films. At 900 °C, nanocrystalline hBN films with a lateral crystallite size of ~2–3 nm are obtained and confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms an atomic N:B ratio of 1 ± 0.1. A three-dimensional growth mode is observed by atomic force microscopy. Increasing the process pressure in the reactor mainly affects the growth rate, with only slight effects on crystalline quality and none on the principle growth mode. Growth of hBN at 980 °C increases the average crystallite size and leads to the formation of 3–10 well-oriented, vertically stacked layers of hBN on the Ge surface. Exploratory ab initio density functional theory simulations indicate that hBN edges are saturated by hydrogen, and it is proposed that partial de-saturation by H radicals produced on hot parts of the set-up is responsible for the growth.
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    Vertical alignment control of self-ordered multilayered Ge nanodots on SiGe
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2023) Wen, Wei-Chen; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Tillack, Bernd; Yamamoto, Yuji
    Self-ordered multilayered Ge nanodots with SiGe spacers on a Si0.4Ge0.6 virtual substrate are fabricated using reduced-pressure chemical vapor deposition, and the mechanism of vertical ordering is investigated. The process conditions of Ge and SiGe layer deposition are H2-GeH4 at 550 °C and H2-SiH4-GeH4 at 500 °C-550 °C, respectively. By depositing the SiGe at 550 °C or increasing Ge content, the SiGe surface becomes smooth, resulting in vertically aligned Ge nanodots to reduce strain energy. Ge nanodots prefer to grow on the nanodot where the SiGe is relatively tensile strained due to the buried Ge nanodot underneath. By depositing at 500 °C and lowering Ge content, checkerboard-like surface forms, and the following Ge nanodots grow at staggered positions to reduce surface energy. The Ge nanodots are laterally aligned along the elastically soft 〈100〉 direction without pre-structuring resulting from the strain distribution.
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    X-ray characterization of Ge dots epitaxially grown on nanostructured Si islands on silicon-on-insulator substrates
    (Chester : International Union of Crystallography, 2013) Zaumseil, Peter; Kozlowski, Grzegorz; Yamamoto, Yuji; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Schroeder, Thomas
    On the way to integrate lattice mismatched semiconductors on Si(001), the Ge/Si heterosystem was used as a case study for the concept of compliant substrate effects that offer the vision to be able to integrate defect-free alternative semiconductor structures on Si. Ge nanoclusters were selectively grown by chemical vapour deposition on Si nano-islands on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. The strain states of Ge clusters and Si islands were measured by grazing-incidence diffraction using a laboratory-based X-ray diffraction technique. A tensile strain of up to 0.5% was detected in the Si islands after direct Ge deposition. Using a thin (∼10 nm) SiGe buffer layer between Si and Ge the tensile strain increases to 1.8%. Transmission electron microscopy studies confirm the absence of a regular grid of misfit dislocations in such structures. This clear experimental evidence for the compliance of Si nano-islands on SOI substrates opens a new integration concept that is not only limited to Ge but also extendable to semiconductors like III–V and II–VI materials.
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    Modulating the Filamentary-Based Resistive Switching Properties of HfO2 Memristive Devices by Adding Al2O3 Layers
    (Basel : MDPI, 2022) Kalishettyhalli Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba; Perez, Eduardo; Lisker, Marco; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Perez-Bosch Quesada, Emilio; Wenger, Christian; Mai, Andreas
    The resistive switching properties of HfO2 based 1T-1R memristive devices are electrically modified by adding ultra-thin layers of Al2 O3 into the memristive device. Three different types of memristive stacks are fabricated in the 130 nm CMOS technology of IHP. The switching properties of the memristive devices are discussed with respect to forming voltages, low resistance state and high resistance state characteristics and their variabilities. The experimental I–V characteristics of set and reset operations are evaluated by using the quantum point contact model. The properties of the conduction filament in the on and off states of the memristive devices are discussed with respect to the model parameters obtained from the QPC fit.
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    Shallow and Undoped Germanium Quantum Wells: A Playground for Spin and Hybrid Quantum Technology
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Sammak, Amir; Sabbagh, Diego; Hendrickx, Nico W.; Lodari, Mario; Wuetz, Brian Paquelet; Tosato, Alberto; Yeoh, LaReine; Bollani, Monica; Virgilio, Michele; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Zaumseil, Peter; Capellini, Giovanni; Veldhorst, Menno; Scappucci, Giordano
    Buried-channel semiconductor heterostructures are an archetype material platform for the fabrication of gated semiconductor quantum devices. Sharp confinement potential is obtained by positioning the channel near the surface; however, nearby surface states degrade the electrical properties of the starting material. Here, a 2D hole gas of high mobility (5 × 10 5 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) is demonstrated in a very shallow strained germanium (Ge) channel, which is located only 22 nm below the surface. The top-gate of a dopant-less field effect transistor controls the channel carrier density confined in an undoped Ge/SiGe heterostructure with reduced background contamination, sharp interfaces, and high uniformity. The high mobility leads to mean free paths ≈ 6 µm, setting new benchmarks for holes in shallow field effect transistors. The high mobility, along with a percolation density of 1.2 × 10 11 cm −2 , light effective mass (0.09m e ), and high effective g-factor (up to 9.2) highlight the potential of undoped Ge/SiGe as a low-disorder material platform for hybrid quantum technologies. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Toward Reliable Compact Modeling of Multilevel 1T-1R RRAM Devices for Neuromorphic Systems
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2021) Perez-Bosch Quesada, Emilio; Romero-Zaliz, Rocio; Perez, Eduardo; Kalishettyhalli Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba; Reuben, John; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Jimenez-Molinos, Francisco; Roldan, Juan Bautista; Wenger, Christian
    In this work, three different RRAM compact models implemented in Verilog-A are analyzed and evaluated in order to reproduce the multilevel approach based on the switching capability of experimental devices. These models are integrated in 1T-1R cells to control their analog behavior by means of the compliance current imposed by the NMOS select transistor. Four different resistance levels are simulated and assessed with experimental verification to account for their multilevel capability. Further, an Artificial Neural Network study is carried out to evaluate in a real scenario the viability of the multilevel approach under study.
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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.
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    Material insights of HfO2-based integrated 1-transistor-1-resistor resistive random access memory devices processed by batch atomic layer deposition
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Niu, Gang; Kim, Hee-Dong; Roelofs, Robin; Perez, Eduardo; Schubert, Markus Andreas; Zaumseil, Peter; Costina, Ioan; Wenger, Christian
    With the continuous scaling of resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices, in-depth understanding of the physical mechanism and the material issues, particularly by directly studying integrated cells, become more and more important to further improve the device performances. In this work, HfO2-based integrated 1-transistor-1-resistor (1T1R) RRAM devices were processed in a standard 0.25 μm complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process line, using a batch atomic layer deposition (ALD) tool, which is particularly designed for mass production. We demonstrate a systematic study on TiN/Ti/HfO2/TiN/Si RRAM devices to correlate key material factors (nano-crystallites and carbon impurities) with the filament type resistive switching (RS) behaviours. The augmentation of the nano-crystallites density in the film increases the forming voltage of devices and its variation. Carbon residues in HfO2 films turn out to be an even more significant factor strongly impacting the RS behaviour. A relatively higher deposition temperature of 300 °C dramatically reduces the residual carbon concentration, thus leading to enhanced RS performances of devices, including lower power consumption, better endurance and higher reliability. Such thorough understanding on physical mechanism of RS and the correlation between material and device performances will facilitate the realization of high density and reliable embedded RRAM devices with low power consumption.