Effects of rapid thermal annealing on crystallinity and Sn surface segregation of Ge1-xSnx films on Si (100) and Si (111)

摘要

Germanium-tin films with rather high Sn content(28.04% and 29.61%) are deposited directly on Si(100) and Si(111)substrates by magnetron sputtering. The mechanism of the effect of rapid thermal annealing on the Sn surface segregation of Ge_(1-x)Sn_x films is investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and atomic force microscopy(AFM). The x-ray diffraction(XRD) is also performed to determine the crystallinities of the Ge_(1-x)Sn_x films. The experimental results indicate that root mean square(RMS) values of the annealed samples are comparatively small and have no noticeable changes for the as-grown sample when annealing temperature is below 400℃. The diameter of the Sn three-dimensional(3 D) island becomes larger than that of an as-grown sample when the annealing temperature is 700℃. In addition, the Sn surface composition decreases when annealing temperature ranges from 400℃ to 700℃. However, Sn bulk compositions in samples A and B are kept almost unchanged when the annealing temperature is below 600℃. The present investigation demonstrates that the crystallinity of Ge_(1-x)Sn_x/Si(111) has no obvious advantage over that of Ge_(1-x)Sn_x/Si(100) and the selection of Si(111) substrate is an effective method to improve the surface morphologies of Ge_(1-x)Sn_x films. We also find that more severe Sn surface segregation occurs in the Ge_(1-x)Sn_x/Si(111) sample during annealing than in the Ge_(1-x)Sn_x/Si(100) sample.