Epitaxial Growth of Ge Strain Relaxed Buffer on Si with Low Threading Dislocation Density

Abstract

Epitaxial Ge with low dislocation density is grown on a low temperature grown Ge seed layer on Si substrate by reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition. The surface topography measured by AFM shows that the strain relaxation occurred through pit formation which resulted in freezing the defects at Ge/Si interface. Moreover a lower threading dislocation density compared to conventional strain relaxed Ge buffers on Si was observed. We show that by growing the first layer at temperatures below 300 °C a surface roughness below 1 nm can be achieved together with enhancement carrier mobility. The different defects densities revealed from SECCO and Iodine etching shows that the defects types have been changed and SECCO is not always trustable.