Tuning the electrical performance of Ge nanowire MOSFETs by focused ion beam implantation.

In this work, we demonstrate an approach to tune the electrical behavior of our Ω-gated germanium-nanowire (Ge-NW) MOSFETs by focused ion beam (FIB) implantation. For the MOSFETs, 35 nm thick Ge-NWs are covered by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of a high-κ gate dielectric. With the Ω-shaped metal gate acting as implantation mask, highly doped source/drain (S/D) contacts are formed in a self-aligned process by FIB implantation. Notably, without any dopant activation by annealing, the devices exhibit more than three orders of magnitude higher I(ON) currents, an improved I(ON)/I(OFF) ratio, a higher mobility and a reduced subthreshold slope of 140 mV/decade compared to identical Ge-NW MOSFETs without FIB implantation.

High performance Ω-gated Ge nanowire MOSFET with quasi-metallic source/drain contacts.

Ge nanowires (NWs) about 2 µm long and 35 nm in diameter are grown heteroepitaxially on Si(111) substrates in a hot wall low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD) system using Au as a catalyst and GeH(4) as precursor. Individual NWs are contacted to Cu pads via e-beam lithography, thermal evaporation and lift-off techniques. Self-aligned and atomically sharp quasi-metallic copper-germanide source/drain contacts are achieved by a thermal activated phase formation process. The Cu(3)Ge segments emerge from the Cu contact pads through axial diffusion of Cu which was controlled in situ by SEM, thus the active channel length of the MOSFET is adjusted without any restrictions from a lithographic process. Finally the conductivity of the channel is enhanced by Ga(+) implantation leading to a high performance Ω-gated Ge-NW MOSFET with saturation currents of a few microamperes.

Atomic scale alignment of copper-germanide contacts for ge nanowire metal oxide field effect transistors.

In this letter, we report on the formation, of copper-germanide/germanium nanowire (NW) heterostructures with atomically sharp interfaces. The copper-germanide (Cu3Ge) formation process is enabled by a chemical reaction between metallic Cu pads and vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) grown Ge-NWs. The atomic scale aligned formation of the Cu3Ge segments is controlled by in situ SEM monitoring at 310 degrees C thereby enabling length control of the intrinsic Ge-NW down to a few nanometers. The single crystal Cu3Ge/Ge/Cu3Ge heterostructures were used to fabricate p-type Ge-NW field effect transistors with Schottky Cu3Ge source/drain contacts. Temperature dependent I /V measurements revealed the metallic properties of the Cu3Ge contacts with a maximum current density of 5 x 10(7) A/cm2. According to the thermoionic emission theory, we determined an effective Schottky barrier height of 218 meV.