ATOMIC LAYER EPITAXY OF GERMANIUM

Novel atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) methods have been proposed for Ge, where the elemental kinetics of the chemical vapor deposition method are divided into two sequential phases, i.e., a monolayer adsorption phase and a subsequent desorption phase for the surface-terminating species. Ge-ALE has been achieved, for the first time, with an ideal growth rate of one monolayer per cycle, under constant substrate temperature conditions. The detailed ALE method and growth characteristics have been presented. Furthermore, atomic hydrogen exposure is shown to be effective for widening the Ge-ALE window.