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Thermal Stability of Annealed Germanium-Tin Alloys Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

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Abstract

The thermal stability of undoped and boron-doped germanium tin (Ge1−x Sn x ) alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy with varying composition and layer thickness was investigated. The alloys were annealed in forming gas at various temperatures up to 800°C for 1 min using rapid thermal processing, and were characterized using high-resolution x-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. It was found that the Ge1−x Sn x alloys were stable to well above the growth temperature, but the stability decreased with increasing thickness, Sn content, and doping. Ge1−x Sn x alloys with low Sn composition (x ∼ 0.025) were stable up to 700°C, and for a given Sn composition, the undoped alloys were more thermally stable than the doped alloys. As the thickness of the Ge0.975Sn0.025 alloys increased to about 950 nm, the temperature of thermal stability dropped to 500°C. As the Sn composition of the 90 nm-Ge1−x Sn x alloys increased up to x = 0.08, the temperature of thermal stability dropped to 300°C. At higher annealing temperatures, the Ge1−x Sn x alloy degraded with lower crystal quality, and a gradient in the Sn composition appeared, which may be due to Sn diffusion or segregation.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to T. Adam, D. Beatson, G. Katulka, M. Kim, R. Opila, M. Pikulin, G. Pomrenke, R. Soref, K. Unruh, Y. K. Yeo and S. Zollner for useful discussions. This work was financially supported by the AFOSR under Grant Number: FA9550-09-1-0688, by Air Liquide (Voltaix) Corporation under Grant Number: 12A01464, and by gifts from IBM corporation, IR labs, Thorlabs, and Air Liquide/Voltaix Corporation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Nupur Bhargava, Jay Prakash Gupta & James Kolodzey

  2. Solar Power Laboratory, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Nikolai Faleev

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Leszek Wielunski

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  1. Nupur Bhargava
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  2. Jay Prakash Gupta
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  3. Nikolai Faleev
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  4. Leszek Wielunski
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  5. James Kolodzey
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Correspondence to James Kolodzey.

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Bhargava, N., Gupta, J.P., Faleev, N. et al. Thermal Stability of Annealed Germanium-Tin Alloys Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 1620–1627 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5205-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5205-y

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