Effect of Electronic Excitation on Thin Film Growth

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The effect of nanosecond pulsed laser excitation on surface diffusion during growth of Ge on Si(100) at 250 degrees C was studied. In Situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was used to measure the surface diffusion coefficient while ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to probe the structure and morphology of the grown quantum dots. The results show that laser excitation of the substrate increases the surface diffusion during growth of Ge on Si(100), changes the growth morphology, improves crystalline structure of the grown quantum dots, and decreases their size distribution. A purely electronic mechanism of enhanced surface diffusion of the deposited Ge is proposed. Ge quantum dots were grown on Si(100)-(2x1) by pulsed laser deposition at various substrate temperatures using a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser. In-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction and ex-situ atomic force microscopy were used to analyze the fim structure and morphology. The morphology of germanium islands on silicon was studied at differect coverages. The results show that femtosecond pulsed laser depositon reduces the minimum temperature for epitaxial growth of Ge quantum dots to ~280 degrees C, which is 120 degrees C lower then previously observed in nanosecond pulsed laser deposition and more than 200 degrees C lower than that reported for molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition.