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Study of High-Quality GeSn Alloys Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition towards Mid-Infrared Applications

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Abstract

Germanium-tin (GeSn) films with Sn compositions from 5% to 11% were grown on Ge-buffered Si using a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition system with low-cost SnCl4 and GeH4 precursors. Material characterization showed that relaxed GeSn layers with thicknesses ranging from 400 nm to 1 μm were achieved. The strong photoluminescence (PL) intensity and the low defect density indicated very high material quality. In addition, temperature-dependent 10–300 K photoluminescence spectra showed that, due to strain relaxation of the material, the emission wavelength is longer than that of strained GeSn thin film samples (t < 200 nm) having the same Sn composition. At 300 K, the PL peak at 2520 nm was observed from the sample with a 1-μm-thick GeSn layer and 11% Sn composition.

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Acknowledgements

The work in UA is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under (DMR-1149605), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under (FA9550-14-1-0205). The authors would also like to thank Institute for Nano Science and Engineering at the University of Arkansas for material characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MicroElectronics-Photonics Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Sattar Al-Kabi & Seyed Amir Ghetmiri

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Sattar Al-Kabi, Seyed Amir Ghetmiri, Wei Du, Aboozar Mosleh, Wei Dou, Hameed A. Naseem & Shui-Qing Yu

  3. Department of Physics, Wasit University, Kut, 52001, Iraq

    Sattar Al-Kabi

  4. ASM, 3440 East University Drive, Phoenix, AZ, 85034, USA

    Joe Margetis & John Tolle

  5. Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Pine Bluff, AR, 71601, USA

    Wei Du & Mansour Mortazavi

  6. Department of Engineering, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, 02125, USA

    Greg Sun & Richard A. Soref

  7. Arktonics, LLC, 1339 South Pinnacle Drive, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Baohua Li

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  1. Sattar Al-Kabi
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  2. Seyed Amir Ghetmiri
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  3. Joe Margetis
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  4. Wei Du
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  5. Aboozar Mosleh
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  12. Hameed A. Naseem
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  13. Shui-Qing Yu
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Correspondence to Sattar Al-Kabi.

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Al-Kabi, S., Ghetmiri, S.A., Margetis, J. et al. Study of High-Quality GeSn Alloys Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition towards Mid-Infrared Applications. J. Electron. Mater. 45, 6251–6257 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5028-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5028-x

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