4 research outputs found
Intermixing during Epitaxial Growth of van der Waals Bonded Nominal GeTe/Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> Superlattices
In
the present work, GeTe and Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> van
der Waals bonded superlattices epitaxially grown by molecular beam
epitaxy are investigated. These structures are grown on passivated
Si substrates, resulting in one single epitaxial domain and its twinned
domain, both sharing the same out-of-plane orientation. Supported
by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, attention is called to
the thermodynamically driven tendency of GeTe and Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> to intermix into a Ge–Sb–Te (GST) alloy at
the interfaces. A growth model is proposed to explain how these GST
structures are formed
Spontaneous Nucleation and Growth of GaN Nanowires: The Fundamental Role of Crystal Polarity
We experimentally investigate whether crystal polarity
affects
the growth of GaN nanowires in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy
and whether their formation has to be induced by defects. For this
purpose, we prepare smooth and coherently strained AlN layers on 6H-SiC(0001)
and SiC(0001̅) substrates to ensure a well-defined polarity
and an absence of structural and morphological defects. On N-polar
AlN, a homogeneous and dense N-polar GaN nanowire array forms, evidencing
that GaN nanowires form spontaneously in the absence of defects. On
Al-polar AlN, we do not observe the formation of Ga-polar GaN NWs.
Instead, sparse N-polar GaN nanowires grow embedded in a Ga-polar
GaN layer. These N-polar GaN nanowires are shown to be accidental
in that the necessary polarity inversion is induced by the formation
of Si<sub><i>x</i></sub>N. The present findings thus demonstrate
that spontaneously formed GaN nanowires are irrevocably N-polar. Due
to the strong impact of the polarity on the properties of GaN-based
devices, these results are not only essential to understand the spontaneous
formation of GaN nanowires but also of high technological relevance
Surface Reconstruction-Induced Coincidence Lattice Formation Between Two-Dimensionally Bonded Materials and a Three-Dimensionally Bonded Substrate
Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> films
are used for studying the epitaxial
registry between two-dimensionally bonded (2D) materials and three-dimensional
bonded (3D) substrates. In contrast to the growth of 3D materials,
it is found that the formation of coincidence lattices between Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> and Si(111) depends on the geometry and dangling
bonds of the reconstructed substrate surface. Furthermore, we show
that the epitaxial registry can be influenced by controlling the Si(111)
surface reconstruction and confirm the results for ultrathin films
Toward Truly Single Crystalline GeTe Films: The Relevance of the Substrate Surface
The growth of GeTe thin films on
a Si(111)-(√3 × √3)R30°-Sb
surface is reported. At growth onset, the rapid formation of fully
relaxed crystalline GeTe(0001)-(1 × 1) is observed. During growth,
a GeTe(0001)-(√3 × √3)R30° surface reconstruction
is also detected. Indeed, density functional theory (DFT) simulations
indicate that the reconstructed GeTe(0001)-(√3 × √3)R30°
structure is energetically competing with the GeTe(0001)-(1 ×
1) reconstruction. The out-of-plane α-GeTe<0001>||Si<111>
and in-plane α-GeTe<−1010>||Si<−211>
epitaxial
relationships are confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Suppression
of rotational twist and reduction of twinned domains are achieved.
The formation of rotational domains in GeTe grown on Si(111)-(7 ×
7) is explained by domain matched coincidence lattice formation with
the Si(111)-(1 × 1) surface. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images
show the coalescence of well-oriented islands with subnanometer roughness
on their top part. van der Pauw measurements are performed to verify
the electric properties of the films. The quality of epitaxial GeTe
thin film is discussed and related to the crystalline structure of
GeTe and its rhombohedrally distorted resonant bonds