TY - JOUR

T1 - Effect of Interfaces and Thickness on the Crystallization Kinetics of Amorphous Germanium Films

AU - Krivyakin, G. K.

AU - Volodin, V. A.

AU - Kamaev, G. N.

AU - Popov, A. A.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was carried out according to the state assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation: in terms of crystallization and investigation of Raman spectra—the Basic Research Program, Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, no. 0306-2019-0019; in terms of growth of structures—the Basic Research Program, Ioffe Physical–Technical Institute, the Russian Academy of Sciences, no. 0066-2019-0003. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publisher Copyright: © 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/7/1

Y1 - 2020/7/1

N2 - The processes of crystallization of amorphous germanium films of various thicknesses and multilayer germanium/silicon nanostructures under isothermal annealing (T = 440°C) were studied. Samples were grown on glass substrates using the method of plasma-chemical deposition. The phase composition of the structures was determined from the analysis of Raman spectra. It was found that 200 nm thick germanium film almost completely crystallizes after two hours of annealing, while crystalline nuclei with a volume fraction of less than 1% only appear in a 6 mm thick germanium film. Four-hour annealing of a thin film leads to a noticeable increase in the nuclei size and the crystallinity fraction increases to 40%. Annealing of a-Ge (6 nm) nanolayers embedded in a-Si matrix under the same conditions for 2 and 4 hours does not even lead to partial crystallization, the layers remain amorphous. The influence of interfaces on the crystallization of germanium layers is discussed.

AB - The processes of crystallization of amorphous germanium films of various thicknesses and multilayer germanium/silicon nanostructures under isothermal annealing (T = 440°C) were studied. Samples were grown on glass substrates using the method of plasma-chemical deposition. The phase composition of the structures was determined from the analysis of Raman spectra. It was found that 200 nm thick germanium film almost completely crystallizes after two hours of annealing, while crystalline nuclei with a volume fraction of less than 1% only appear in a 6 mm thick germanium film. Four-hour annealing of a thin film leads to a noticeable increase in the nuclei size and the crystallinity fraction increases to 40%. Annealing of a-Ge (6 nm) nanolayers embedded in a-Si matrix under the same conditions for 2 and 4 hours does not even lead to partial crystallization, the layers remain amorphous. The influence of interfaces on the crystallization of germanium layers is discussed.

KW - crystallization kinetics

KW - germanium

KW - interfaces

KW - RAMAN-SCATTERING

KW - HYDROGENATED SILICON

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087122433&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1134/S1063782620070040

DO - 10.1134/S1063782620070040

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85087122433

VL - 54

SP - 754

EP - 758

JO - Semiconductors

JF - Semiconductors

SN - 1063-7826

IS - 7

ER -