ALBERT

Notes: The integration of Ge photodetectors on silicon substrates is advantageous for various Si-based optoelectronics applications. We have fabricated integrated Ge photodiodes on a graded optimized relaxed SiGe buffer on Si. The dark current in the Ge mesa diodes, Js=0.15 mA/cm2, is close to the theoretical reverse saturation current and is a record low for Ge diodes integrated on Si substrates. Capacitance measurements indicate that the detectors are capable of operating at high frequencies (2.35 GHz). The photodiodes exhibit an external quantum efficiency of η=12.6% at λ=1.3 μm laser excitation in the photodiodes. The improvement in Ge materials quality and photodiode performance is derived from an optimized relaxed buffer process that includes a chemical mechanical polishing step within the dislocated epitaxial structure. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The effects of growth temperature, substrate offcut, and dislocation pileup formation on threading dislocation density (TDD) in compositionally graded SiGe buffers are explored. To investigate dislocation glide kinetics in these structures, a series of identical samples graded to 30% Ge were grown at temperatures between 650 and 900 °C on (001)-, (001) offcut 6° towards an in-plane 〈110〉-, and (001) offcut 6° towards an in-plane 〈100〉-oriented Si substrates. The field threading dislocation density (field TDD) in the on-axis samples varied exponentially with temperature, from 3.7×106 cm−2 at 650 °C to 9.3×104 cm−2 at 900 °C. The activation energy for dislocation glide in this series, calculated from the evolution of field TDD with growth temperature, was 1.38 eV, much lower than the expected value for this composition. This deviation indicates that strain accumulating during the grading process at low growth temperatures is forcing further dislocation nucleation, resulting in a deviation from pure glide-limited relaxation. The TDD of samples grown on offcut substrates exhibited a more complicated temperature dependence, likely because films grown on offcut substrates have an increased tendency towards saturation in dislocation reduction reactions at high temperature. Dislocation reduction processes were further explored by initiating compositional grading up to 15% Ge at 650 °C and continuing the grade to 30% Ge at 900 °C. The low temperature portion of this growth provided an excess concentration of threading dislocations which could subsequently be annihilated during the high temperature portion of the growth, enabling a comparison of reduction rates for different substrate offcuts. Combining these results with threading dislocation densities in a variety of other samples, a complete picture of strain relaxation kinetics in compositionally graded SiGe/Si emerges. Generally, strain relaxation in these structures is limited by dislocation glide, and threading dislocation densities are independent of final Ge content. However, we theorize that dislocation pileup formation inhibits the strain relaxation process and is therefore accompanied by a rise in field threading dislocation density. Based on these results, we now have a predictive model for TDD in compositionally graded SiGe/Si over a wide range of growth conditions. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We have achieved peak hole mobility enhancement factors of 5.15 over bulk Si in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) by combining tensile strained Si surface channels and compressively strained 80% Ge buried channels grown on relaxed 50% Ge virtual substrates. To further investigate hole transport in these dual channel structures, we study the effects of strain, alloy scattering, and layer thickness on hole mobility enhancements in MOSFETs based upon these layers. We show that significant performance boosts can be obtained despite the effects of alloy scattering and that the best hole mobility enhancements are obtained for structures with thin Si surface layers. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We show that pure Ge grown selectively on SiO2/Si substrates in 100 nm holes is highly perfect at the top surface compared to conventional Ge lattice-mismatched growth on planar Si substrates. This result is achieved through a combination of interferometric lithography SiO2/Si substrate patterning and ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition Ge selective epitaxial growth. This "epitaxial necking," in which threading dislocations are blocked at oxide sidewalls, shows promise for dislocation filtering and the fabrication of low-defect density Ge on Si. Defects at the Ge film surface only arise at the merging of epitaxial lateral overgrowth fronts from neighboring holes. These results confirm that epitaxial necking can be used to reduce threading dislocation density in lattice-mismatched systems. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We have fabricated strained Ge channel p-type metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (p-MOSFETs) on Si0.3Ge0.7 virtual substrates. The poor interface between silicon dioxide (SiO2) and the Ge channel was eliminated by capping the strained Ge layer with a relaxed, epitaxial silicon surface layer grown at 400 °C. Ge p-MOSFETs fabricated from this structure show a hole mobility enhancement of nearly eight times that of co-processed bulk Si devices, and the Ge MOSFETs have a peak effective mobility of 1160 cm2/V s. These MOSFETs demonstrate the possibility of creating a surface channel enhancement-mode MOSFET with buried channel-like transport characteristics. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We report our femtosecond time-resolved measurements on the photoresponse of an epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) thin-film photodetector, patterned into a microbridge geometry. By varying the current–voltage biasing conditions between the superconducting and resistive (hot spot) states, we observed transients that correspond to the nonequilibrium kinetic-inductance and the nonequilibrium electron-heating response mechanisms, respectively. The two-temperature model and the Rothwarf–Taylor theory have been used to simulate the measured wave forms and to extract the temporal parameters. The electron thermalization time and the electron–phonon energy relaxation time were determined by the electron temperature rise and decay times, which were found to be 0.56 and 1.1 ps, respectively, in the resistive state. We have also measured the ratio between the phonon and electron specific heats to be 38, which corresponds to a phonon–electron scattering time of 42 ps. No phonon-trapping effect (typical for low-temperature superconductors) was observed in YBCO, in the superconducting state, so the quasiparticle lifetime was given by the quasiparticle recombination time, estimated from the Rothwarf–Taylor equations to be below 1 ps. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We report time-resolved characterization of superconducting NbN hot-electron photodetectors using an electro-optic sampling method. Our samples were patterned into micron-size microbridges from 3.5-nm-thick NbN films deposited on sapphire substrates. The devices were illuminated with 100 fs optical pulses, and the photoresponse was measured in the ambient temperature range between 2.15 and 10.6 K (superconducting temperature transition TC). The experimental data agreed very well with the nonequilibrium hot-electron, two-temperature model. The quasiparticle thermalization time was ambient temperature independent and was measured to be 6.5 ps. The inelastic electron–phonon scattering time τe–ph tended to decrease with the temperature increase, although its change remained within the experimental error, while the phonon escape time τes decreased almost by a factor of two when the sample was put in direct contact with superfluid helium. Specifically, τe–ph and τes, fitted by the two-temperature model, were equal to 11.6 and 21 ps at 2.15 K, and 10(±2) and 38 ps at 10.5 K, respectively. The obtained value of τe–ph shows that the maximum intermediate frequency bandwidth of NbN hot-electron phonon-cooled mixers operating at TC can reach 16(+4/−3) GHz if one eliminates the bolometric phonon-heating effect. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: A method of controlling threading dislocation densities in Ge on Si involving graded SiGe layers and chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) is presented. This method has allowed us to grow a relaxed graded buffer to 100% Ge without the increase in threading dislocation density normally observed in thick graded structures. This sample has been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, etch-pit density, atomic force microscopy, Nomarski optical microscopy, and triple-axis x-ray diffraction. Compared to other relaxed graded buffers in which CMP was not implemented, this sample exhibits improvements in threading dislocation density and surface roughness. We have also made process modifications in order to eliminate particles due to gas-phase nucleation and cracks due to thermal mismatch strain. We have achieved relaxed Ge on Si with a threading dislocation density of 2.1×106 cm−2, and we expect that further process refinements will lead to lower threading dislocation densities on the order of bulk Ge substrates. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Photoresponse signals with widths as short as 1.5 ps are observed from epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films using electro-optic sampling techniques. Voltage transients less than 2 ps wide are seen in 100- and 200-nm films exposed to 150-fs laser pulses and cooled to 79 K. At low bias currents, the amplitude of the fast response varies linearly with the bias current, suggesting a kinetic inductive mechanism. A negative transient about 15-ps long is also seen that may provide evidence for nonequilibrium recombination of excited quasiparticles into Cooper pairs. At high bias currents or large laser fluences, a fast tail with a decay time of about 10 ps appears in the response followed by a slow, resistive bolometric component due to sample heating. Nonequilibrium aspects of the photoresponse and the origin of the fast tail are discussed. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.