High mobility holes in a strained Ge quantum well grown on a thin and relaxed Si0.4Ge0.6/LT-Si0.4Ge0.6/Si(001) virtual

Epitaxial growth of a compressively strained Ge quantum well (QW) on an ultrathin, 345 nm thick, Si0.4Ge0.6/LT-Si0.4Ge0.6/Si(001) virtual substrate (VS) has been demonstrated. The VS, grown with a low temperature Si0.4Ge0.6 seed layer on a Si(001) substrate, is found to be fully relaxed and the Ge QW is fully strained. The temperature dependence of Hall mobility and carrier density clearly indicates a two-dimensional hole gas in the Ge QW. At room temperature, which is more relevant for electronic devices applications, the samples show a very high Hall mobility of 1235 cm2 V−1 s−1 at a carrier density of 2.36×1012 cm−2

Complex quantum transport in a modulation doped strained Ge quantum well heterostructure with a high mobility 2D hole gas

The complex quantum transport of a strained Ge quantum well (QW) modulation doped heterostructure with two types of mobile carriers has been observed. The two dimensional hole gas (2DHG) in the Ge QW exhibits an exceptionally high mobility of 780 000 cm2/Vs at temperatures below 10 K. Through analysis of Shubnikov de-Haas oscillations in the magnetoresistance of this 2DHG below 2 K, the hole effective mass is found to be 0.065 m0. Anomalous conductance peaks are observed at higher fields which deviate from standard Shubnikov de-Haas and quantum Hall effect behaviour due to conduction via multiple carrier types. Despite this complex behaviour, analysis using a transport model with two conductive channels explains this behaviour and allows key physical parameters such as the carrier effective mass, transport, and quantum lifetimes and conductivity of the electrically active layers to be extracted. This finding is important for electronic device applications, since inclusion of highly doped interlayers which are electrically active, for enhancement of, for example, room temperature carrier mobility, does not prevent analysis of quantum transport in a QW

Misfit strain relaxation and dislocation formation in supercritical strained silicon on virtual substrates

Relaxation of strained silicon on 20% linear graded virtual substrates was quantified using high resolution x-ray diffraction and a defect etching technique. The thickness of strained silicon was varied between 10 and 180 nm. Relaxation was observed in layers below the critical thickness but increased to only 2% relaxation in the thickest layers even with annealings up to 950 °C. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy revealed stacking faults present in layers thicker than 25 nm, and nucleated 90° Shockley partial dislocations forming microtwins in the thickest layer. These features are implicated in the impediment of the relaxation process

Reverse graded relaxed buffers for high Ge content SiGe virtual substrates

An innovative approach is proposed for epitaxial growth of high Ge content, relaxed Si1−xGex buffer layers on a Si(001) substrate. The advantages of the technique are demonstrated by growing such structures via chemical vapor deposition and their characterization. Relaxed Ge is first grown on the substrate followed by the reverse grading approach to reach a final buffer composition of 0.78. The optimized buffer structure is only 2.8 µm thick and demonstrates a low surface threading dislocation density of 4×106 cm−2, with a surface roughness of 2.6 nm. The buffers demonstrate a relaxation of up to 107%

High-frequency performance of Schottky source/drain silicon pMOS devices

A radio-frequency performance of 85-nm gate-length p-type Schottky barrier (SB) with PtSi source/drain materials is investigated. The impact of silicidation annealing temperature on the high-frequency behavior of SB MOSFETs is analyzed using an extrinsic small-signal equivalent circuit. It is demonstrated that the current drive and the gate transconductance strongly depend on the silicidation anneal temperature, whereas the unity-gain cutoff frequency of the measured devices remains nearly unchanged

Ultrasonic inspection and self-healing of Ge and 3C-SiC semiconductor membranes

Knowledge of the mechanical properties and stability of thin film structures is important for device operation. Potential failures related to crack initiation and growth must be identified early, to enable healing through e.g. annealing. Here, three square suspended membranes, formed from a thin layer of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) or germanium (Ge) on a silicon substrate, were characterised by their response to ultrasonic excitation. The resonant frequencies and mode shapes were measured during thermal cycling over a temperature range of 20--100~$^\circ$C. The influence of temperature on the stress was explored by comparison with predictions from a model of thermal expansion of the combined membrane and substrate. For an ideal, non-cracked sample the stress and Q-factor behaved as predicted. In contrast, for a 3C-SiC and a Ge membrane that had undergone vibration and thermal cycling to simulate extended use, measurements of the stress and Q-factor showed the presence of damage, with the 3C-SiC membrane subsequently breaking. However, the damaged Ge sample showed an improvement to the resonant behaviour on subsequent heating. Scanning electron microscopy showed that this was due to a self-healing of sub-micrometer cracks, caused by expansion of the germanium layer to form bridges over the cracked regions, with the effect also observable in the ultrasonic inspection

Narrow heavy-hole cyclotron resonances split by the cubic Rashba spin-orbit interaction in strained germanium quantum wells

The spin-orbit interaction was found to split the cyclotron resonance of heavy holes confined in high-mobility, compressively strained germanium quantum wells. The interference between coherent spin-split cyclotron resonances was tracked on picosecond time scales using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Analysis in the time domain, or using a time-frequency decomposition based on the Gabor-Morlet wavelet, was necessary when the difference between cyclotron frequencies was comparable to the linewidth. The cubic Rashba spin-orbit coefficient β was determined via two methods: (i) the magnetic-field dependence of the cyclotron frequencies, and (ii) the spin-resolved subband densities. An enhanced β and spin polarization was created by tailoring the strain to enhance the spin-orbit interaction. The amplitude modulation of the narrow, interfering cyclotron resonances is a signature of spin coherences persisting for more than 10 ps

Fractional quantum Hall states in a Ge quantum well

Measurements of the Hall and dissipative conductivity of a strained Ge quantum well on a SiGe/(001)Si substrate in the quantum Hall regime are reported. We analyse the results in terms of thermally activated quantum tunneling of carriers from one internal edge state to another across saddle points in the long range impurity potential. This shows that the gaps for different filling fractions closely follow the dependence predicted by theory. We also find that the estimates of the separation of the edge states at the saddle are in line with the expectations of an electrostatic model in the lowest spin-polarised Landau level (LL), but not in the spin-reversed LL where the density of quasiparticle states is not high enough to accommodate the carriers required

An origin behind Rashba spin splitting within inverted doped sGe heterostructures

In this paper, we demonstrate why cubic Rashba spin splitting is observed within inverted doped strained germanium (sGe) hetrostructures. Magnetotransport measurements showed beating within the SdH oscillation, with fast Fourier analysis revealing cubic Rashba spin splitting to be present. A cubic Rashba coefficient of β=7.97×10−29 eVm3β=7.97×10−29 eVm3 and a spin-splitting energy of Δ=1.17 meVΔ=1.17 meV were determined. The source of the cubic Rashba spin splitting was identified from a combination of ultra low energy secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis and subsequent band structure modelling using Nextnano3. Ultra-low eneIn this paper we demonstrate an origin for cubic Rashba spin splitting observed within inverted doped strained germanium (sGe) hetrostructures. Magnetotransport measurements showed beating within the SdH data, with ensuing Fast Fourier analysis revealing cubic Rashba spin splitting to be present. A spin orbit interaction value of and spin splitting energy were determined. The source of the cubic Rashba spin splitting was identified from a combination of ultra low energy secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis and subsequent band structure modelling using Nextnao3. Ultra low energy secondary ion mass spectrometry revealed an unintentional, highly B doped near surface region to be present. By incorporating this information into the Nextnano3 modelling, two single subband triangular QWs were predicted, one at the upper and the other at the lower interface of the sGe QW. Moreover, these triangular wells are expected to be asymmetric due to the difference in B doping levels and spacer layer thicknesses, and it is this asymmetry which induces the cubic Rashba spin splitting observed

Cyclotron resonance of extremely conductive 2D holes in high Ge content strained heterostructures

Cyclotron resonance has been observed in steady and pulsed magnetic fields from high conductivity holes in Ge quantum wells. The resonance positions, splittings and linewidths are compared to calculations of the hole Landau levels