Epitaxial growth of Cu(100) and Pt(100) thin films on perovskite substrates

Pulsed laser deposition has been used to grow epitaxially oriented thin films of Cu and Pt on (100)-oriented SrTiO₃ and LaAlO₃ substrates. X-ray diffraction results illustrated that purely epitaxial Cu(100) films could be obtained at temperatures as low as 100 °C on SrTiO₃ and 300 °C on LaAlO₃. In contrast, epitaxial (100)-oriented Pt films were attained on LaAlO₃(100) only when deposited at 600 °C. Atomic force microscopy images showed that films deposited at higher temperatures consisted of 3D islands and that flat, layered films were obtained at the lowest deposition temperatures. Importantly, Cu films deposited at 100 °C on SrTiO₃(100) were both purely (100)-oriented and morphologically flat. Pt and Cu films displaying both epitaxial growth and smooth surfaces could be obtained on LaAlO₃(100) only by using a three-step deposition process. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy demonstrated an atomically sharp Cu/SrTiO₃ interface. The crystalline and morphological features of Cu and Pt films are interpreted in terms of the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of these metals.     

Facile and solvent-free fabrication of highly oriented ferroelectric copolymer thin films and its application in ferroelectric field effect transistors

An environmentally friendly and solvent-free method was reported for fabrication of ferroelectric copolymer P(VDF-TrFE) thin films directly from their molten mass. Friction-transferred poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) templates were used for epitaxy during solidification process. The obtained films showed highly-oriented crystallite structure and improved degree of crystallinity. Electrical measurement indicated that these films presented good ferroelectric property with remnant polarization comparable to those solution deposited and epitaxially processed films. A ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) was constructed with one oxide semiconductor as an active layer and P(VDF-TrFE) as a ferroelectric layer. The memory device showed an ON/OFF ratio as high as 10⁵ and good retention performance during the whole experimental duration. This work developed a new route for environmentally friendly fabrication of organic ferroelectric devices.     

SOI基外延纯Ge材料的生长及表征

利用超高真空化学气相沉积系统采用低温-高温两步法外延Ge材料.我们先在低温下生长硅锗作为过渡缓冲层利用其界面应力限制位错的传播,然后在低温下生长的纯锗层,接着高温生长纯锗,最后在SOI基上成功的外延出了高质量的纯锗层,测试结果表明厚锗层的晶体生长质量很好,芯片表面也很平整,表面粗糙度5.5nm.     

Orientation control of epitaxial Ge thin films growth on SrTiO3 (100) by ultrahigh vacuum sputtering

We report the orientation control of crystalline Ge (111) and Ge (001) growth on SrTiO₃ (100) substrate by adjusting the temperature of substrate. It is found that the substrate temperature plays an important role for the formation of crystalline Ge with different surface orientations and interfacial chemical configuration during the sputtering process. At 500 °C, Ge (111) with good crystalline quality is formed, while Ge (001) is preferably grown on SrTiO₃ substrate at 650 °C. Our results show the possibility of manipulating the surface orientations during Ge growth on SrTiO₃ by controlling the substrate temperatures.     

Solid-phase epitaxy of undoped amorphous silicon by in-situ postannealing

The solid phase epitaxy (SPE) of undoped amorphous Si (a-Si) deposited on SiO₂ patterned Si(001) wafers by reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) using a H₂-Si₂H₆ gas system was investigated. The SPE was performed by applying in-situ postannealing directly after deposition process. By transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy, we studied the lateral SPE (L-SPE) length on sidewall and mask for various postannealing times, temperatures and a-Si thicknesses. We observed an increase in L-SPE growth for longer postannealing times, temperatures and larger Si thicknesses on mask. TEM defect studies revealed that by SPE crystallized epi-Si exhibits a higher defect density on the mask than at the inside of the mask window. By introducing SiO₂-cap on the sample with 180 nm Si thickness following postannealing at 570 °C for 5 h, the crystallization of up to 450 nm epi-Si from a-Si is achieved. We demonstrated the possibility to use this technique for SiGe:C heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) base layer stack to crystallize Si-buffer layer to widen the monocrystalline region around the bipolar window and to improve base link resistivity of the HBT.     

SiGe channels for VT control of high-k metal gate transistors for 32 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology and beyond

GLOBALFOUNDRIES 32 nm high-k metal gate technology, with SiGe channel for V_T control of P-field effect transistor, is taken into production. This epitaxial channel material is being introduced into high volume manufacturing in complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology. The morphology of the SiGe channel (cSiGe) for narrow width transistors is carefully controlled by process conditions such as epitaxial growth temperature, pre bake condition or in-situ Si recess prior epitaxial deposition. A micro loading effect observed in 28 nm technology was eliminated by an in-situ recess of the silicon before epitaxial deposition. Due to the significant cost of this process step, an epitaxial batch system has been evaluated to reduce the cost of ownership dramatically. Also the cSiGe process has been optimized to minimize the thickness variation of the SiGe channel due to the strong response of V_T to cSiGe thickness.     

Faceting and nanostructure effects in Si and SiGe epitaxy

Epitaxy in Si technologies has to be integrated in the flow of fabrication; in most cases, it has to be selective and deposition takes place in extremely small patterns.In a first part, Si or SiGe epitaxy faceting is presented and discussed. Today, the global view is that, at first order, faceting is a kinetic phenomenon, controlled by deposition kinetic anisotropies. On the contrary, in a second part we show that highly faceted structures tend to decrease their surface energy by thermal rounding and that this phenomenon is very important when considering very small (20-40 nm) patterns.The main part reports on the combination of faceting with small size effects. Experiments consist in depositing Si_0.72Ge_0.28 selectively in very narrow (35-80 nm) lines oriented either along < 110 > or < 100 > crystal axis on (100) Si wafers. Preliminary observations clearly demonstrate an important {100} faceting that is often not observed or reported in literature. Our results also evaluate the lateral overgrowth of selective epitaxies. < 110 >-oriented lines lead to a certain lateral epitaxial overgrowth that is limited by {111} facets whereas epitaxies in < 100 > lines present a much larger (> 2 times) overgrowth bordered by {100} facets.Finally, we demonstrate that the edge effects have to be taken into account. Firstly, the amount of epitaxial material deposited in narrow lines depends on the line orientation, and then we propose the concept of “anisotropic loading effect”. Secondly, we found that deposition rates in small patterns are not constant with time. This corresponds to “time-nonlinear loading effects” that were never conceptualized in literature.     

High quality epitaxial ZnO films grown on solid-phase crystallized buffer layers

High quality epitaxial ZnO films on sapphire (110) plane have been fabricated on ZnO homo-buffer layers crystallized via solid-phase epitaxially (SPE). The SPE-ZnO films are fabricated by annealing of amorphous ZnON (a-ZnON) films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. During annealing, the a-ZnON films are oxidized and converted to ZnO crystal. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the resultant films are epitaxially grown on the sapphire substrates. By using the SPE-ZnO films as homo-buffer layers, the ZnO films with high crystallinity, which are deposited by RF magnetron sputtering, are fabricated. The full width at half-maximum of XRD patterns for 2θ-ω and ω scan of (002) plane are 0.094° and 0.12°, respectively, being significantly small compared with 0.24° and 0.55° for the films without buffer layers. Thus utilizing SPE buffer layers is very promising to obtain epitaxial ZnO films with high crystallinity.     

Epitaxial film growth of chromium dioxide by low pressure chemical vapor deposition using chromium carbonyl

Epitaxial chromium dioxide (CrO₂) thin films have been deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) on (100) TiO₂ substrates using the precursor chromium hexacarbonyl (Cr(CO)₆) within a narrow temperature window of 380-400 °C. Normal θ-2θ Bragg x-ray diffraction results show that the predominant phase is CrO₂ with only a small amount of Cr₂O₃ present, mostly at the film surface. The LPCVD films have a reasonably smooth surface morphology with a root mean square roughness of 4 nm on a scale of 5 μm. Raman spectroscopy confirms the existence of rutile CrO₂ in the deposited films, while transmission electron microscopy confirms the single-crystalline nature of the films. The LPCVD films showing a dominant CrO₂ phase exhibit clear uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis oriented along the c direction.     

Enhancing epitaxial SixC1 − x deposition by adding Ge

In this work, a possible way to enhance the epitaxial growth of metastable, tensile strained Si_xC_1 − x layers by the addition of germanium is demonstrated. During ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition growth, the co-mixing of germane to the Si_xC_1 − x precursors was found to enhance the growth rate by a factor of ~ 3 compared to the growth of pure Si_xC_1 − x. Furthermore, an increase of the amount of substitutional incorporated carbon has been observed. Selective Si_xGe_yC_{1 − x − y} deposition processes utilizing a cyclic deposition were developed to integrate epitaxial tensile strained layers into source and drain areas of n-channel transistors.