Effects of Germanium on Grain size and surface roughness of the solid phase crystallized polycrystalline Si1−xGex films

Abstract

AbstractSi1−xGex (x≤0.5) films were deposited by using Si2H4 and GeH4 source gases in a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). The deposition temperature was varied from 375 °C for Si0.5Ge0.5 to 450 °C for Si film in order to deposit amorphous Si1−xGex films and the deposition pressure was about 1 Torr. The grain size of polycrystalline Si1−xGex films made by solid phase crystallization (SPC) decreases with germanium content in the films, and the activation energy obtained from the dependence of grain size on annealing temperature was 0.4 eV for Si and 0.45 eV for Si0 69Ge0.31. From obtaining a similar activation energy irrespective of Ge content in the film, the decrease of grain size with germanium content is attributed to the difference of the asdeposited film conditions. The surface roughness of Si1−xGex films investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM) increases with germanium content in the film before and after SPC. For instance, the root-mean square (rms) values of the surface roughness of the as-deposited Si and Si0.5Ge0.5 films were 2.3 and 17 Å, while those values were increased to 2.6 and 41 Å, respectively, after SPC. In order to reduce the surface roughness of Si0.5Ge0.5 film, we have deposited a thin Si capping layer on top of the Si1−xGex layer and identified that this capping layer effectively reduces the increase of surface roughness after SPC.