Growth and characterization of germanium epitaxial film on silicon (001) with germane precursor in metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) chamber

• Main Authors: Fitzgerald, Eugene A., Lee, Kwang Hong, Jandl, Adam, Tan, Yew Heng, Tan, Chuan Seng
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/100172; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/18453
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The quality of germanium (Ge) epitaxial film grown directly on a silicon (Si) (001) substrate with 6° off-cut using conventional germane precursor in a metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) system is studied. The growth sequence consists of several steps at low temperature (LT) at 400 °C, intermediate temperature ramp (LT-HT) of ∼10 °C/min and high temperature (HT) at 600 °C. This is followed by post-growth annealing in hydrogen at temperature ranging from 650 to 825 °C. The Ge epitaxial film of thickness ∼ 1 μm experiences thermally induced tensile strain of 0.11 % with a treading dislocation density (TDD) of ∼107/cm2 and the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of ∼ 0.75 nm. The benefit of growing Ge epitaxial film using MOCVD is that the subsequent III-V materials can be grown in-situ without the need of breaking the vacuum hence it is manufacturing worthy.