Gas Source Techniques for Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Highly Mismatched Ge Alloys

Date

2016-12-02

Authors

Stephenson, Chad A.
Gillett-Kunnath, Miriam
O'Brien, William A.
Kudrawiec, Robert
Wistey, Mark A.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Abstract

Ge and its alloys are attractive candidates for a laser compatible with silicon integrated circuits. Dilute germanium carbide (Ge1−xCx) offers a particularly interesting prospect. By using a precursor gas with a Ge4C core, C can be preferentially incorporated in substitutional sites, suppressing interstitial and C cluster defects. We present a method of reproducible and upscalable gas synthesis of tetrakis(germyl)methane, or (H3Ge)4C, followed by the design of a hybrid gas/solid-source molecular beam epitaxy system and subsequent growth of defect-free Ge1−xCx by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Secondary ion mass spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and contactless electroreflectance confirm the presence of carbon with very high crystal quality resulting in a decrease in the direct bandgap energy. This technique has broad applicability to growth of highly mismatched alloys by MBE.

Description

This article belongs to the Special Issue Current and Future Directions in Crystal Growth by Molecular Beam Epitaxy.

Keywords

germanium, germanium carbide, molecular beam epitaxy, Physics

Citation

Stephenson, C. A., Gillett-Kunnath, M., O’Brien, W. A., Kudrawiec, R. & Wistey, M. A. (2016). Gas Source Techniques for Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Highly Mismatched Ge Alloys. Crystals, 6, 159.

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© 2016 The Authors.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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