Low temperature epitaxial growth of CeO2(110) layers on Si(100) using electron beam assisted evaporation

With the aims of lowering growth temperature and improvement of crystalline quality, the effect of electron-beam assistance is studied in the epitaxial growth of CeO2(110) layers on Si(100) substrates by electron-beam evaporation in an ultrahigh vacuum. From experiments of evaporation at positive substrate bias, it is clarified that electron incidence onto the growing surface is effective in the facilitation of the epitaxial growth. Newly developed electron-beam assisted evaporation proves to have much greater effects in both the growth temperature lowering and the crystalline quality improvement. The epitaxial,growth facilitation effect depends on incident electron energy. Optimum electron energy is determined to be around 360 eV, wherein the epitaxial temperature is lowered to 710 degrees C, i.e. temperature lowering of more than 100 degrees C compared with the conventional growth method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.