Heteroepitaxial Growth of Germanium Films by Supersonic Free Jet Chemical Beam Epitaxy

Abstract

AbstractA supersonic free jet operated in continuous wave and pulsed mode was used to grow Ge films on (100) GaAs and (100) Si substrates. The Ge-bearing source molecule digermane (Ge2H6) was seeded (at 5% concentration) in a helium carrier gas. A free jet expansion of this gas mixture was directed toward the heated substrate surface, where Ge film growth took place by surface-induced thermal decomposition of the ballistically impinging digermane molecules. The thickness distribution across the substrate surface was fitted by a cosmJ distribution. The values of m spanned the range 6–35. The upper limit on growth resulting from “background” gas scattered out of the jet was found to be less than 10% of the Ge film thickness for growth on (100) GaAs, and around 25% for growth on (100) Si.