Surface Diffusion and Islanding in Semiconductor Heterostructures

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is an important technique for the creation of new, non-equilibrium semiconductor materials and structures exhibiting novel physical phenomena. Surface diffusion plays an important role in the growth of these structures, influencing such fundamental growth processes and constants as islanding, critical thickness and epitaxial temperatures. Two approaches to the general problem of surface diffusion and islanding, using the SiGe system as a prototypical semiconductor heterostructure, are discussed: The time evolution of patterned deposits, and kinetic studies of nucleation and growth. While disordered laminar growth occurs for deposition at 300 K, elevated temperatures lead to Stranski-Krastanow (SK) growth (uniform coverage SK with excess Ge in islands). Diffusion coefficients for Ge on Si(100) have been determined for coverages below SK and show a significant coverage dependence. They are extremely sensitive to contamination with carbon on the order of ≈0.05 ML, as well as to e-beam irradiation. In situ annealing experiments were performed to study the islanding process in real time. Provided the initial coverage exceeds the thickness of the SK layer, SK ≈3 ML on Si(100)2x1, the initially uniform but disordered layer begins to collapse into a SK-type morphology at about 250 °C. At a ramping rate of 0.1 °C/s this process is completed at ≈400 °C. A temperature dependence of the SK-layer thickness has been discovered for the first time. It is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions

Superlattice ultrasonic generation

We report the first experimental evidence for the resonant excitation of coherent high-frequency acoustic phonons in semiconducting doping superstructures by far-infrared laser radiation. After a grating-coupled delta-doped silicon doping superlattice is illuminated with ~1 kW/mm2 nanosecond-pulsed 246 GHz laser radiation, a delayed nanosecond pulse is detected by a superconducting bolometer at a time corresponding to the appropriate time-of-flight for ballistic longitudinal acoustic phonons across the (100) silicon substrate. The absorbed phonon power density in the microbolometer is observed to be ~10 μW/mm2, in agreement with theory. The phonon pulse duration also matches the laser pulse duration. The absence of any delayed transverse acoustic phonon signal by the superconducting bolometer is particularly striking and implies there is little or no incoherent phonon generation occurring in the process

Vacancy-Impurity Complexes in Highly Sb-Doped Si Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Positron annihilation measurements, supported by first-principles electron-structure calculations, identify vacancies and vacancy clusters decorated by 1–2 dopant impurities in highly Sb-doped Si. The concentration of vacancy defects increases with Sb doping and contributes significantly to the electrical compensation. Annealings at low temperatures of 400–500 K convert the defects to larger complexes where the open volume is neighbored by 2–3 Sb atoms. This behavior is attributed to the migration of vacancy-Sb pairs and demonstrates at atomic level the metastability of the material grown by epitaxy at low temperature.Peer reviewe

Enhanced diffusion of dopants in vacancy supersaturation produced by MeV implantation

The diffusion of Sb and B markers has been studied in vacancy supersaturations produced by MeV Si implantation in float zone (FZ) silicon and bonded etch-back silicon-on-insulator (BESOI) substrates. MeV Si implantation produces a vacancy supersaturated near-surface region and an interstitial-rich region at the projected ion range. Transient enhanced diffusion (TED) of Sb in the near surface layer was observed as a result of a 2 MeV Si{sup +}, 1 {times} 10{sup 16}/cm{sup 2}, implant. A 4{times} larger TED of Sb was observed in BESOI than in FZ silicon, demonstrating that the vacancy supersaturation persists longer in BESOI than in FZ. B markers in samples with MeV Si implant showed a factor of 10{times} smaller diffusion relative to markers without the MeV Si{sup +} implant. This data demonstrates that a 2 MeV Si{sup +} implant injects vacancies into the near surface region

Self-consistent local-equilibrium model for density profile and distribution of dissipative currents in a Hall bar under strong magnetic fields

Recent spatially resolved measurements of the electrostatic-potential variation across a Hall bar in strong magnetic fields, which revealed a clear correlation between current-carrying strips and incompressible strips expected near the edges of the Hall bar, cannot be understood on the basis of existing equilibrium theories. To explain these experiments, we generalize the Thomas-Fermi--Poisson approach for the self-consistent calculation of electrostatic potential and electron density in {\em total} thermal equilibrium to a {\em local equilibrium} theory that allows to treat finite gradients of the electrochemical potential as driving forces of currents in the presence of dissipation. A conventional conductivity model with small values of the longitudinal conductivity for integer values of the (local) Landau-level filling factor shows that, in apparent agreement with experiment, the current density is localized near incompressible strips, whose location and width in turn depend on the applied current.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Vacancy-Impurity Complexes in Highly Sb-Doped Si Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Positron annihilation measurements, supported by first-principles electron-structure calculations, identify vacancies and vacancy clusters decorated by 1-2 dopant impurities in highly Sb-doped Si. The concentration of vacancy defects increases with Sb doping and contributes significantly to the electrical compensation. Annealings at low temperatures of 400 -500 K convert the defects to larger complexes where the open volume is neighbored by 2 -3 Sb atoms. This behavior is attributed to the migration of vacancy-Sb pairs and demonstrates at atomic level the metastability of the material grown by epitaxy at low temperature. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.165501 PACS numbers: 61.72.-y, 61.82.Fk, 78.70.Bj The interest in highly doped Si is fundamentally related to the miniaturization of field-effect transistors, where increased doping is needed to maintain a sufficient conductance of the source and drain regions The molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth at low temperature ( < 600 K) can be applied to achieve metastable doping and free electron concentrations, which become compensated only at 10 21 cm ÿ3 In this work we apply positron annihilation spectroscopy to study vacancies formed in the low-temperature MBE growth of highly Sb-doped Si. Positrons get trapped at open-volume defects. The measured annihilation photons carry information on the electron momentum density, which can be utilized to identify the size of the open volume of the defect and the neighboring dopant atoms. Our results show that the MBE growth creates vacancies and vacancy clusters, which are neighbored by 1-2 Sb atoms. The vacancy concentrations are relevant for the compensation of the Sb doping. We also show that the low-temperature MBE Si is atomically metastable, and annealings at low temperatures of 400 -500 K lead to clustering of vacancies and dopant impurities. We studied Si(100) layers grown by MBE on the Si substrate at 550 K We used a low-energy positron beam to measure the Doppler broadened energy spectrum of the annihilation radiation. The shape of the spectrum was described with conventional S and W parameter

Vacancy-impurity complexes in highly Sb-doped Si grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Positron annihilation measurements, supported by first-principles electron-structure calculations, identify vacancies and vacancy clusters decorated by 1 -2 dopant impurities in highly Sb-doped Si. The concentration of vacancy defects increases with Sb doping and contributes significantly to the electrical compensation. Annealings at low temperatures of 400 -500 K convert the defects to larger complexes where the open volume is neighbored by 2 -3 Sb atoms. This behavior is attributed to the migration of vacancy-Sb pairs and demonstrates at atomic level the metastability of the material grown by epitaxy at low temperature. PACS numbers: 61.82.Fk, 78.70.Bj The interest in highly doped Si is fundamentally related to the miniaturization of field-effect transistors, where increased doping is needed to maintain a sufficient conductance of the source and drain regions The molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth at low temperature (< 600 K) can be applied to achieve metastable doping and free electron concentrations, which become compensated only at 10 21 cm −3 In this work we apply positron annihilation spectroscopy to study vacancies formed in the lowtemperature MBE growth of highly Sb-doped Si. Positrons get trapped at open volume defects. The measured annihilation photons carry information on the electron momentum density, which can be utilized to identify the size of the open volume of the defect and the neighboring dopant atoms. Our results show that the MBE growth creates vacancies and vacancy clusters, which are neighbored by 1 -2 Sb atoms. The vacancy concentrations are relevant for the compensation of the Sb doping. We also show that the low-temperature MBE Si is atomically metastable, and annealings at low temperatures of 400-500 K lead to clustering of vacancies and dopant impurities. We studied Si(100) layers grown by MBE on Si substrate at 550

Planar cyclotron motion in unidirectional superlattices defined by strong magnetic and electric fields: Traces of classical orbits in the energy spectrum

We compare the quantum and the classical description of the two-dimensional motion of electrons subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field and a one-dimensional lateral superlattice defined by spatially periodic magnetic and electric fields of large amplitudes. We explain in detail the complicated energy spectra, consisting of superimposed branches of strong and of weak dispersion, by the correspondence between the respective eigenstates and the ``channeled'' and ``drifting'' orbits of the classical description.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Physical Review

The role of mutation rate variation and genetic diversity in the architecture of human disease

Background We have investigated the role that the mutation rate and the structure of genetic variation at a locus play in determining whether a gene is involved in disease. We predict that the mutation rate and its genetic diversity should be higher in genes associated with disease, unless all genes that could cause disease have already been identified. Results Consistent with our predictions we find that genes associated with Mendelian and complex disease are substantially longer than non-disease genes. However, we find that both Mendelian and complex disease genes are found in regions of the genome with relatively low mutation rates, as inferred from intron divergence between humans and chimpanzees, and they are predicted to have similar rates of non-synonymous mutation as other genes. Finally, we find that disease genes are in regions of significantly elevated genetic diversity, even when variation in the rate of mutation is controlled for. The effect is small nevertheless. Conclusions Our results suggest that gene length contributes to whether a gene is associated with disease. However, the mutation rate and the genetic architecture of the locus appear to play only a minor role in determining whether a gene is associated with disease