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A thermally erasable silicon oxide layer for molecular beam epitaxy

Yaonan Hou, Hui Jia Orcid Logo, Mingchu Tang Orcid Logo, Aleksander Buseth Mosberg, Quentin M Ramasse, Ilias Skandalos, Yasir Noori Orcid Logo, Junjie Yang Orcid Logo, Huiyun Liu Orcid Logo, Alwyn Seeds, Frederic Gardes

Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Volume: 55, Issue: 42

Swansea University Author: Yaonan Hou

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Abstract

We present a systematic study of the oxidation and deoxidation behaviours of several kinds of ultrathin silicon oxide layers frequently used in silicon (Si) technology, which in this work serve as surface protecting layers for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). With various characterization techniques, w...

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Published in: Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
ISSN: 0022-3727 1361-6463
Published: IOP Publishing 2022
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65281
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Abstract: We present a systematic study of the oxidation and deoxidation behaviours of several kinds of ultrathin silicon oxide layers frequently used in silicon (Si) technology, which in this work serve as surface protecting layers for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). With various characterization techniques, we demonstrate that a chemically grown silicon oxide layer is the most promising candidate for subsequent removal in an ultra-high vacuum chamber at a temperature of 1000 ∘C, without making use of a reducing agent. As a demonstration, a tensile-strained Ge(100) layer is epitaxially grown on the deoxidised wafer with an atomically flat surface and a low threading dislocation density of 3.33 × 108 cm−2. Our findings reveal that the ultra-thin oxide layer grown using a chemical approach is able to protect Si surfaces for subsequent MBE growth of Ge. This approach is promising for the growth of III/V-on-Si (using Ge as a buffer) and all group-IV related epitaxy for integration on the Si photonics platforms.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: The authors are grateful for support from the UKRI-EPSRC Programme Grant 'QUantum Dot On Silicon systems for communications, information processing and sensing (QUDOS)'. Electron microscopy experiments were carried out at SuperSTEM, the National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy, also supported by UKRI-EPSRC. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution* (CCBY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.
Issue: 42