Low Temperature Deposition of High-k/Metal Gate Stacks on High-Sn Content (Si)GeSn-Alloys.

(Si)GeSn is an emerging group IV alloy system offering new exciting properties, with great potential for low power electronics due to the fundamental direct band gap and prospects as high mobility material. In this Article, we present a systematic study of HfO2/TaN high-k/metal gate stacks on (Si)GeSn ternary alloys and low temperature processes for large scale integration of Sn based alloys. Our investigations indicate that SiGeSn ternaries show enhanced thermal stability compared to GeSn binaries, allowing the use of the existing Si technology. Despite the multielemental interface and large Sn content of up to 14 atom %, the HfO2/(Si)GeSn capacitors show small frequency dispersion and stretch-out. The formed TaN/HfO2/(Si)GeSn capacitors present a low leakage current of 2 × 10(-8) A/cm(2) at -1 V and a high breakdown field of ∼8 MV/cm. For large Sn content SiGeSn/GeSn direct band gap heterostructures, process temperatures below 350 °C are required for integration. We developed an atomic vapor deposition process for TaN metal gate on HfO2 high-k dielectric and validated it by resistivity as well as temperature and frequency dependent capacitance-voltage measurements of capacitors on SiGeSn and GeSn. The densities of interface traps are deduced to be in the low 10(12) cm(-2) eV(-1) range and do not depend on the Sn-concentration. The new processes developed here are compatible with (Si)GeSn integration in large scale applications.

Study of GeSn based heterostructures: towards optimized group IV MQW LEDs.

We present results on CVD growth and electro-optical characterization of Ge(0.92)Sn(0.08)/Ge p-i-n heterostructure diodes. The suitability of Ge as barriers for direct bandgap GeSn active layers in different LED geometries, such as double heterostructures and multi quantum wells is discussed based on electroluminescence data. Theoretical calculations by effective mass and 6 band k∙p method reveal low barrier heights for this specific structure. Best configurations offer only a maximum barrier height for electrons of about 40 meV at the Γ point at room temperature (e.g. 300 K), evidently insufficient for proper light emitting devices. An alternative solution using SiGeSn as barrier material is introduced, which provides appropriate band alignment for both electrons and holes resulting in efficient confinement in direct bandgap GeSn wells. Finally, epitaxial growth of such a complete SiGeSn/GeSn/SiGeSn double heterostructure including doping is shown.