Abstract
Thin films of pure Ge and ZrO2, composite Ge-ZrO2 layers and [Ge-ZrO2/ZrO2]40 multilayers were fabricated by confocal radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The structural and optical properties of these samples were studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry, Raman scattering and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in dependence of the chemical composition and the annealing treatment. It could be shown that rapid thermal annealing stimulates a phase separation process within the Ge-ZrO2 composite films leading to a formation of Ge nanocrystals and tetragonal ZrO2. The starting point of this process depends significantly on the Ge content: the higher the Ge content, the lower is the crystallization temperature. Compared to the monoclinic phase, the tetragonal ZrO2 phase offers an enhanced permittivity.
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