Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Single-crystal germanium layers grown on silicon by nanowire seeding

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 649–653 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Three-dimensional integration and the combination of different material systems are central themes of electronics research. Recently, as-grown vertical one-dimensional structures have been integrated into high-density three-dimensional circuits. However, little attention has been paid to the unique structural properties of germanium nanowires obtained by epitaxial and heteroepitaxial growth on Ge(111) and Si(111) substrates1,2, despite the fact that the integration of germanium on silicon is attractive for device applications. Here, we demonstrate the lateral growth of single crystal germanium islands tens of micrometres in diameter by seeding from germanium nanowires grown on a silicon substrate. Vertically aligned high-aspect-ratio nanowires can transfer the orientation and perfection of the substrate crystal to overlying layers a micrometre or more above the substrate surface. This technique can be repeated to build multiple active device layers, a key requirement for the fabrication of densely interconnected three-dimensional integrated circuits.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: SEM micrographs of the samples at various points in the processing sequence.
Figure 2: TEM micrographs of crystallized germanium islands.
Figure 3: EBSD analysis of a 30 µm × 30 µm germanium island after LPE.
Figure 4: In-plane electrical measurements of crystallized germanium islands (100 nm thick), with crystallization processes as described in Fig. 2a and b, respectively.
Figure 5: Estimated growth velocity scaled by homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation rate versus temperature for a 30 µm × 30 µm germanium island with thin-film thicknesses of 30 nm, 100 nm and 1 µm encapsulated in SiO2.

References

  1. Adhikari, H., Marshall, A. F., Chidsey, C. E. D. & McIntyre, P. C. Germanium nanowire epitaxy: shape and orientation control. Nano Lett. 6, 318–323 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Jagannathan, H. et al. Nature of germanium nanowire heteroepitaxy on silicon substrates. J. Appl. Phys. 100, 024318 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Shang, H. et al. Electrical characterization of germanium p-channel MOSFETs. IEEE Electron. Dev. Lett. 24, 242–244 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chui, C. O. et al. Germanium MOS capacitors incorporating ultrathin high-kappa gate dielectric. IEEE Electron. Dev. Lett. 23, 473–475 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kim, H., Chui, C. O., Saraswat, K. C. & McIntyre, P. C. Local epitaxial growth of ZrO2 on Ge(100) substrates by atomic layer epitaxy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 2647–2649 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Okyay, A. K. et al. High-efficiency metal–semiconductor–metal photodetectors on heteroepitaxially grown Ge on Si. Opt. Lett. 31, 2565–2567 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kim, S. et al. Integrating phase-change memory cell with Ge nanowire diode for crosspoint memory-experimental demonstration and analysis. IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev. 55, 2307–2313 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Liu, Y. C., Deal, M. D. & Plummer, J. D. Rapid melt growth of germanium crystals with self-aligned microcrucibles on si substrates. J. Electrochem. Soc. 152, G688–G693 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Csepregi, L., Kennedy, E. F., Mayer, J. W. & Sigmon, T. W. Substrate-orientation dependence of epitaxial regrowth rate from Si-implanted amorphous Si. J. Appl. Phys. 49, 3906–3911 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Nakaharai, S. et al. Characterization of 7-nm-thick strained Ge-on-insulator layer fabricated by Ge-condensation technique. Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 3516–3518 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Witte, D. J. et al. Lamellar crystallization of silicon for 3-dimensional integration. Microelectron. Eng. 84, 1186–1189 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kodambaka, S., Tersoff, J., Reuter, M. C. & Ross, F. M. Germanium nanowire growth below the eutectic temperature. Science 316, 729–732 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Leu, P. W. et al. Oxide-encapsulated vertical germanium nanowire structures and their dc transport properties. Nanotechnology 19, 485705 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Fossum, J. G., Ortizconde, A., Shichijo, H. & Banerjee, S. K. Anomalous leakage current in LPCVD polysilicon MOSFETs. IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev. 32, 1878–1884 (1985).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Ahmed, S., Kim, D. & Shichijo, H. A comprehensive analytic model of accumulation-mode MOSFETs in polysilicon thin films. IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev. 33, 973–985 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Spaepen, F. & Turnbull, D. Kinetics of motion of crystal–melt interfaces. AIP Conf. Proc. 50, 73–83 (1979).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Xu, Q. et al. Large melting-point hysteresis of Ge nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 155701 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Turnbull, D. & Fisher, J. C. Rate of nucleation in condensed systems. J. Chem. Phys. 17, 71–73 (1949).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Turnbull, D. Kinetics of heterogeneous nucleation. J. Chem. Phys. 18, 198–203 (1950).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Turnbull, D. & Cohen, M. H. Concerning reconstructive transformation and formation of glass. J. Chem. Phys. 29, 1049–1054 (1958).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Becker, R. & Doring, W. Kinetische behandlung der keimbildung in ubersattigten dampfen. Ann. Phys.-Berlin 24, 719–752 (1935).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Lide, D. R. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (Taylor and Francis, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Stojic, M., Babic Stojic, B. & Milivojevic, D. Influence of vacancies on the static and dynamic properties of monoatomic liquids. Phys. B: Condens. Matter 334, 274–286 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Evans, P. V., Devaud, G., Kelly, T. F. & Kim, Y.-W. Solidification of highly undercooled Si and Ge droplets. Acta Metall. Mater. 38, 719–726 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the members of the Nanowire Facility at Stanford University, I. A. Goldthorpe, J. Ratchford, J. Woodruff, Y. Zhang and H. Adhikari for helping maintain the nanowire growth reactor, and J. McVittie and Y. Nishi for managing the facility. The authors also thank T. Brand and R. Macdonald for help in the CMP process and J. Feng for useful discussions. Funding for this work was provided by the DARPA SPAWAR 3D-IC programme, a Stanford School of Engineering Fellowship and a Stanford Graduate Fellowship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Shu Hu & Paul C. McIntyre

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Paul W. Leu

  3. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Ann F. Marshall & Paul C. McIntyre

Authors
  1. Shu Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul W. Leu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ann F. Marshall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paul C. McIntyre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. S.H. and P.C.M. conceived and designed the experiments, analysed the data and co-wrote the paper. S.H. and P.W.L. performed the experiments. A.F.M. contributed TEM sample preparation and analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul C. McIntyre.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hu, S., Leu, P., Marshall, A. et al. Single-crystal germanium layers grown on silicon by nanowire seeding. Nature Nanotech 4, 649–653 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.233

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.233

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Find nanotechnology articles, nanomaterial data and patents all in one place. Visit Nano by Nature Research