Solid‐Phase Epitaxial Crystallization of Amorphous Ge on Si

Abstract

Heteroepitaxial Ge films have been obtained by solid‐phase crystallization of amorphous Ge deposited on single crystal <100>Si substrates. The Si substrates were chemically cleaned by conventional procedures without any attempt to achieve atomically clean surfaces. Epitaxial crystallization of the amorphous Ge films were accomplished by furnace annealing at temperatures of 500°–900°C. The as‐crystallized Ge films contain dislocations and twins whose densities decrease with increasing annealing temperature. Significant reduction in twin density has been achieved by using an ion implantation and reannealing treatment. Epitaxial layers of good crystal quality have been grown by chemical vapor deposition on heteroepitaxial Ge films subjected to this treatment.