Abstract

Epitaxial thin film heterostructures are critical for integrating multi-functionality on a chip and creating smart structures for next-generation solid-state devices. Here, we discuss the traditional lattice matching epitaxy (LME) for small lattice misfit and domain matching epitaxy (DME), which handles epitaxial growth across the misfit scale, where lattice misfit strain is predominant and can be relaxed completely, meaning that only the thermal and defect strains remain upon cooling. In low misfit systems, all three sources contribute to the residual strain upon cooling, as result of incomplete lattice relaxation. In the second part of the chapter, we will discuss the two critical contributors to the stress of the epitaxial film: the thermal coefficient of expansion mismatch and the lattice plane misfit. In the last part of the chapter, we will focus on unique cases where room temperature epitaxial growth is possible in nitride and oxide thin films.

Highlights

  • The modern civilization operates in bits, and the start of the “binary” era was made possible by the invention of transistor in 1947

  • This chapter focused on furthering the current knowledge of thin-film epitaxy; extensive investigations were performed on the importance of deposition temperature and post-deposition annealing while considering the initial lattice misfit between the substrate and the film

  • It was observed that the behavior of thin films can be categorized into three distinct groups: (i) non-epitaxial samples, (ii) epitaxial films with a small lattice misfit, and (iii) epitaxial films grown with a large lattice misfit between the substrate and the film

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Summary

Introduction

The modern civilization operates in bits (zeroes and ones), and the start of the “binary” (digital) era was made possible by the invention of transistor in 1947. The fundamental template on which transistors are made is silicon. The modern transistors are made using thin-film growth technologies. New scaling issues occurred primarily because of deposition technology limitations of that era. As we move closer to single nanometer nodes, fundamental limitations that originate from material properties start to take over as the main challenges that were previously reserved for instrumentation [2, 3]. The overview of thin-film growth is provided, followed by the discussion on epitaxy and lattice misfit considerations. The role of temperature in film growth is discussed with some examples

Pulsed laser deposition
Lattice matching epitaxy
Domain matching epitaxy
Thermal misfit considerations
Thermal processing of thin film heterostructures
Room-temperature epitaxial thin film growth
Findings
Conclusions
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