Diluted manganese on the bond-centered site in germanium

The functional properties of Mn-doped Ge depend to large extent on the lattice location of the Mn impurities. Here, we present a lattice location study of implanted diluted Mn by means of electron emission channeling. Surprisingly, in addition to the expected substitutional lattice position, a large fraction of the Mn impurities occupies the bond-centered site. Corroborated by ab initio calculations, the bond-centered Mn is related to Mn-vacancy complexes. These unexpected results call for a reassessment of the theoretical studies on the electrical and magnetic behavior of Mn-doped Ge, hereby including the possible role of Mn-vacancy complexes

Direct observation of substitutional Ga after ion implantation in Ge by means of extended x-ray absorption fine structure

We present an experimental lattice location study of Ga atoms in Ge after ion implantation at elevated temperature (250°C). Using extended x-rayabsorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments and a dedicated sample preparation method, we have studied the lattice location of Ga atoms in Ge with a concentration ranging from 0.5 at. % down to 0.005 at. %. At Ga concentrations ≤0.05 at.%, all Ga dopants are substitutional directly after ion implantation, without the need for post-implantation thermal annealing. At higher Ga concentrations, a reduction in the EXAFS amplitude is observed, indicating that a fraction of the Ga atoms is located in a defective environment. The local strain induced by the Ga atoms in the Ge matrix is independent of the Ga concentration and extends only to the first nearest neighbor Ge shell, where a 1% contraction in bond length has been measured, in agreement with density functional theory calculations.We acknowledge the support from the Research Foundation Flanders, the epi-team from imec, the KU Leuven GOA 09/06 project, the IUAP program P6/42 and the Australian Research Council. S.C. acknowledges support from OCAS NV by an OCAS-endowed chair at Ghent University

Epitaxial ternary RexMo1-xSi2 thin films on Si(100)

Includes bibliographical references (page 3927).Reactive deposition epitaxy was used to synthesize thin layers of RexMo1-xSi2 on Si(100). In the case of x>=1, ReSi2 layers of excellent crystalline quality have been reported previously [J.E. Mahan, K. M. Geib, G. Y. Robinson, R. G. Long, Y. Xinghua, G. Bai, and M.-A. Nicolet, Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, 2439 (1990)]. In the case of x=0, however, virtually no alignment of theMoSi2 and the substrate is found, although this silicide is nearly isomorphic to ReSi2. For intermediate values of x, highly epitaxial ternary silicides are obtained, at least for a Mo fraction up to 1/3

Direct evidence for stability of tetrahedral interstitial Er in Si up to 900∘^{\circ}C

Conversion electron emission channeling from the isotope $^{167m}$Er (2.28 s), which is the decay product of radioactive $^{167}$Tm (9.25 d), offers a means of monitoring the lattice sites of Er in single crystals. We have used this method to determine the lattice location of $^{167m}$Er in Si directly following room temperature implantation of $^{167}$Tm, after subsequent annealing steps, and also in situ during annealing up to 900°C. Following the recovery of implantation damage around 600°C, about 90% of Er occupies near-tetrahedral interstitial sites in both FZ and CZ Si. While in FZ Si $^{167m}$Er was found to be stable on these sites even at 900°C, the tetrahedral Er fraction in CZ Si decreased considerably after annealing for 10 min at 800°C and above

Controlling the formation and stability of ultra-thin nickel silicides : an alloying strategy for preventing agglomeration

The electrical contact of the source and drain regions in state-of-the-art CMOS transistors is nowadays facilitated through NiSi, which is often alloyed with Pt in order to avoid morphological agglomeration of the silicide film. However, the solid-state reaction between as-deposited Ni and the Si substrate exhibits a peculiar change for as-deposited Ni films thinner than a critical thickness of t(c) = 5 nm. Whereas thicker films form polycrystalline NiSi upon annealing above 450 degrees C, thinner films form epitaxial NiSi2 films that exhibit a high resistance toward agglomeration. For industrial applications, it is therefore of utmost importance to assess the critical thickness with high certainty and find novel methodologies to either increase or decrease its value, depending on the aimed silicide formation. This paper investigates Ni films between 0 and 15 nm initial thickness by use of "thickness gradients," which provide semi-continuous information on silicide formation and stability as a function of as-deposited layer thickness. The alloying of these Ni layers with 10% Al, Co, Ge, Pd, or Pt renders a significant change in the phase sequence as a function of thickness and dependent on the alloying element. The addition of these ternary impurities therefore changes the critical thickness t(c). The results are discussed in the framework of classical nucleation theory

Optical energies of AllnN epilayers

Optical energy gaps are measured for high-quality Al1−xInxN-on-GaN epilayers with a range of compositions around the lattice match point using photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. These data are combined with structural data to determine the compositional dependence of emission and absorption energies. The trend indicates a very large bowing parameter of 6 eV and differences with earlier reports are discussed. Very large Stokes' shifts of 0.4-0.8 eV are observed in the composition range 0.13<x<0.24, increasing approximately linearly with InN fraction despite the change of sign of the piezoelectric fiel

Van der Waals epitaxial growth of GaSe on Si(111), The

Includes bibliographical references (pages 7293-7294).GaSe, a layered semiconductor, may be grown on the Si(111) surface by molecular beam epitaxy. The crystalline quality is relatively good, in the sense that the MeV4He ion minimum channeling yield (~30%) is as low as that of state-of-the-art bulk material, and the interface is atomically abrupt. The initial film deposits are epitaxial islands, and subsequent growth is in the Frank-van der Merwe mode. With the islands already relaxed at the nucleation stage and coalescing to essentially uniform coverage with the first monolayer of deposition, GaSe on Si(111) provides an example of van der Waals epitaxy. However, it is difficult to understand how epitaxy (crystallographic alignment with the substrate) can occur in such a case, where the film is incommensurate starting from the initial nuclei. A mechanism for alignment of the islands is proposed: they are aligned with the silicon substrate through the influence of dangling bonds at their perimeter, being "quasi-commensurate" by virtue of their small lateral size. Although discommensurate regions are created as the islands grow laterally, there is simply no change in their orientation