Growth and Atomistic Structure Study of Disordered SiGe Mixed Semiconductors

Abstract

The atomistic structure of Czochralski-grown SixGe1-x binary mixed semiconductor was studied experimentally and theoretically. By extended X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) studies it was found that bulk SiGe semiconductor is a random mixture and that the Ge-Ge, Ge-Si and Si-Si bond lengths maintain distinctly different lengths and vary in a linear fashion against the alloy composition across the whole composition range 0 < x < 1, in good agreement with expectations derived from the ab-inito electronic structure calculations. The result indicates that SiGe is a suitable model for a disorder mixed material and that the bond lengths and bond angles are distorted with the composition.