Aby wyświetlić tę treść, wymagana jest subskrypcja JoVE. Zaloguj się lub rozpocznij bezpłatny okres próbny.
This work details the procedures for the growth and characterization of crystalline SrTiO3 directly on germanium substrates by atomic layer deposition. The procedure illustrates the ability of an all-chemical growth method to integrate oxides monolithically onto semiconductors for metal-oxide semiconductor devices.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a commercially utilized deposition method for electronic materials. ALD growth of thin films offers thickness control and conformality by taking advantage of self-limiting reactions between vapor-phase precursors and the growing film. Perovskite oxides present potential for next-generation electronic materials, but to-date have mostly been deposited by physical methods. This work outlines a method for depositing SrTiO3 (STO) on germanium using ALD. Germanium has higher carrier mobilities than silicon and therefore offers an alternative semiconductor material with faster device operation. This method takes advantage of the instability of germanium's native oxide by using thermal deoxidation to clean and reconstruct the Ge (001) surface to the 2×1 structure. 2-nm thick, amorphous STO is then deposited by ALD. The STO film is annealed under ultra-high vacuum and crystallizes on the reconstructed Ge surface. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is used during this annealing step to monitor the STO crystallization. The thin, crystalline layer of STO acts as a template for subsequent growth of STO that is crystalline as-grown, as confirmed by RHEED. In situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to verify film stoichiometry before and after the annealing step, as well as after subsequent STO growth. This procedure provides framework for additional perovskite oxides to be deposited on semiconductors via chemical methods in addition to the integration of more sophisticated heterostructures already achievable by physical methods.
Perovskite materials are becoming increasingly attractive due to their highly symmetric cubic or pseudocubic structure and myriad of properties. These materials, with general formula ABO3, consist of A atoms coordinated with 12 oxygen atoms and B atoms coordinated with six oxygen atoms. Owing to their simple structure, yet wide range of potential elements, perovskite materials provide ideal candidates for heterostructure devices. Epitaxial oxide heterostructures boast ferromagnetic,1-3 anti/ferroelectric,4 multiferroic,5-8 superconductive,7-12 and magnetoresistive functionalities.13,14 Many of these desirable electronic properties are interfacial and thus dependent on clean, abrupt transitions between materials. The nearly identical structure and lattice constants shared between members of the perovskite family allow for excellent lattice matching and, therefore, high quality interfaces. Readily lattice-matched to each other as well as some semiconductors, perovskite oxides are now being turned to in next generation metal-oxide-semiconductor electronics.
Monolithic integration of crystalline oxides with silicon, first demonstrated with perovskite strontium titanate, SrTiO3 (STO), by McKee and colleagues,15 was a monumental step towards the realization of electronic devices with perovskite-semiconductor incorporation. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is the primary technique for epitaxial growth of oxides on silicon because of the layer-by-layer growth as well as the tunable oxygen partial pressure necessary to control amorphous, interfacial SiO2 formation.16-19 Typical MBE growth of STO on Si (001) is achieved by Sr-assisted deoxidation of SiO2. Under the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions, SrO is volatile and subject to thermal evaporation. Since SrO is thermodynamically preferred over strontium metal and SiO2, deposition of Sr scavenges oxygen from the SiO2 layer and the resulting SrO evaporates from the surface. During this process the silicon surface experiences a 2×1 reconstruction at the surface that forms rows of dimerized silicon atoms. Conveniently, ½ monolayer (ML) coverage of Sr atoms on the reconstructed surface fills in the gaps created by these dimer rows.20 The ½ ML coverage provides a protective layer that, with careful control of oxygen pressure, can prevent or control interfacial SiO2 formation during subsequent oxide growth.21-23 In the case of STO (and perovskites with similar lattice match), the resulting lattice is rotated 45° in-plane such that (001)STO‖(001)Si and (100)STO‖(110)Si, allowing registry between the Si (3.84 Å Si-Si distance) and STO (a = 3.905 Å) with only slight compressive strain on the STO. This registry is necessary for high quality interfaces and the desired properties they possess.
Silicon became industrially significant due to the high quality of its interfacial oxide, but SiO2 use is being phased out for materials capable of equivalent performance at smaller feature sizes. SiO2 experiences high leakage currents when ultra-thin and this diminishes device performance. The demand for smaller feature sizes could be met by perovskite oxide films with high dielectric constants, k, that provide performance equivalent to SiO2 and are physically thicker than SiO2 by the factor k/3.9. Furthermore, alternative semiconductors, like germanium, offer potential for faster device operation due to higher electron and hole mobilities than silicon.24,25 Germanium also has an interfacial oxide, GeO2, but in contrast to SiO2, it is unstable and subject to thermal deoxidation. Thus, 2×1 reconstruction is achievable by simple thermal annealing under UHV, and a protective Sr layer is unnecessary to prevent interfacial oxide growth during perovskite deposition.26
Despite the apparent ease of growth offered by MBE, atomic layer deposition (ALD) provides a more scalable and cost effective method than MBE for the commercial production of oxide materials.27,28 ALD employs doses of gaseous precursors to the substrate that are self-limiting in their reaction with the substrate surface. Therefore, in an ideal ALD process, up to one atomic layer is deposited for any given precursor dosing cycle and continued dosing of the same precursor will not deposit additional material onto the surface. Reactive functionality is restored with a co-reactant, often an oxidative or reductive precursor (e.g., water or ammonia). Previous work has demonstrated the ALD growth of various perovskite films, such as anatase TiO2, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, and LaAlO3, on Si (001) that had been buffered with four-unit-cell thick STO grown via MBE. 29-34 In purely MBE growth of crystalline oxides, ½ monolayer coverage of Sr on clean Si (001) is enough to provide a barrier against SiO2 formation under the pressures native to the technique (~10-7 Torr). However, under typical ALD operating pressures of ~1 Torr, previous work has shown that four unit cells of STO is required to avoid oxidizing the Si surface.29
The procedure detailed here utilizes the instability of GeO2 and achieves monolithic integration of STO on germanium via ALD without the need of an MBE-grown buffer layer.26 Furthermore, the Ge-Ge interatomic distance (3.992 Å) on its (100) surface allows for an analogous epitaxial registry with STO that is observed with Si (001). Though the procedure presented here is specific to STO on Ge, slight modifications may allow for the monolithic integration of a variety of perovskite films on germanium. Indeed, direct ALD growth of crystalline SrHfO3 and BaTiO3 films have been reported on Ge.35,36 Additional possibilities include the potential gate oxide, SrZrxTi1-xO3.37 Finally, building on previous studies of ALD perovskite growth on a four-unit cell STO film on Si (001)29-34 suggests that any film that could be grown on the STO/Si platform could be grown on an ALD-grown STO buffer film on Ge, such as LaAlO3 and LaCoO3.32,38 The multitude of properties available to oxide heterostructures and remarkable similarity between perovskite oxides suggest this procedure could be utilized to study previously difficult or impossible growth combinations with such an industrially viable technique.
Figure 1 depicts the schematic of the vacuum system, which encompasses ALD, MBE, and analytical chambers connected by a 12-foot transfer line. The samples can be transferred in vacuo between each chamber. The baseline pressure of the transfer line is kept at approximately 1.0×10-9 Torr by three ion pumps. The commercial angle-resolved ultraviolet and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) system is maintained with an ion pump such that the pressure in the analytical chamber is kept at approximately 1.0×10-9 Torr.
The ALD reactor is a rectangular custom-built stainless steel chamber with a volume of 460 cm3 and length of 20 cm. A schematic of the ALD reactor is shown in Figure 2. The reactor is a hot wall, continuous cross-flow type reactor. Samples placed in the reactor have a clearance of 1.7 cm between the top surface of the substrate and the chamber ceiling and 1.9 cm between the bottom of the substrate and the chamber floor. A heating tape, powered by a dedicated power supply, is wrapped around the chamber from the inlet to approximately 2 cm beyond the exhaust port and provides temperature control of the reactor walls. A temperature controller adjusts the power input to the heating tape according to a temperature measurement taken by a thermal couple located between the heating tape and exterior reactor wall. The reactor is then completely wrapped with three additional heating tapes of constant power provided by a variac, and a final layer of fiberglass wool with aluminum foil covering provides insulation to promote uniform heating. The power output of the variac is adjusted such that the idling temperature (when the dedicated power supply is turned off) of the reactor is approximately 175 °C. The reactor is passively cooled via ambient air. The substrate temperature is calculated using the linear-fit equation (1), where Ts (°C) is the temperature of substrate and Tc (°C) is the temperature of the reactor wall, obtained by directly measuring a substrate fitted with a thermocouple. A temperature profile exists along the flow direction of the chamber due to the cold gate valve that connects the reactor to the transfer line; the temperature profile perpendicular to the flow direction is negligible. The temperature profile causes a richer Sr deposition at the leading edge of the sample, but the composition variation along sample is small (less than a 5% difference between the leading and trailing edges of the sample) according to XPS.31 The exhaust of the reactor is connected to a turbomolecular pump and a mechanical pump. During the ALD process, the reactor is pumped by the mechanical pump to maintain the pressure at around 1 Torr. Otherwise, the reactor pressure is maintained below 2.0×10-6 Torr by the turbomolecular pump.
(1) Ts=0.977Tc + 3.4
The MBE chamber is maintained at a baseline pressure of approximately 2.0×10-9 Torr or below by a cryogenic pump. The partial pressure of various species in the MBE chamber is monitored by a residual gas analyzer. The background pressure of H2 is around 1.0×10-9 Torr, while those of O2, CO, N2, CO2, and H2O, are less than 1.0×10-10 Torr. In addition, the MBE chamber is also equipped with six effusion cells, a four-pocket electron beam evaporator, an atomic nitrogen plasma source and an atomic oxygen plasma source with high-precision piezoelectric leak valve, and a reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) system for real-time in situ growth and crystallization observations. The sample manipulator allows the substrate be heated up to 1000 °C using an oxygen-resistant silicon carbide heater.
1. Preparing Sr and Ti Precursors for ALD Experiments
2. Cleaning the Ge (001) Substrate
3. Loading the Ge Substrate
4. Ge Deoxidization
5. Thin Film ALD Growth of STO on Ge Substrate
6. Annealing of STO Film
7. Further Growth of STO
8. XPS Measurements
Figures 5 and 6 show typical X-ray photoelectron spectra and RHEED images from a cleaned and deoxidized Ge substrate. A successfully-deoxidized Ge substrate is characterized by its "smiley face" 2×1 reconstructed RHEED pattern.26,39 In addition, Kikuchi lines are also observed in the RHEED images, which indicate the cleanliness and long range order of the sample.40 The sharpness and intensity of the diffraction pattern a...
The cleanliness of the Ge substrate is the key to success when growing the epitaxial perovskite using ALD. The amount of time a Ge substrate spends between degreasing and deoxidization, and the amount of time between deoxidization and STO deposition, should be kept at a minimum. Samples are still subject to contaminant exposure even under the UHV environment. Prolonged exposure may lead to redeposition of adventitious carbon or Ge reoxidation, resulting in poor film growth. This group has employed a widely-used degreasin...
The authors have no competing financial interests to disclose.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (Awards CMMI-1437050 and DMR-1207342), the Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-10-10489), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-14-1-0090).
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
MBE | DCA | M600 | |
Cryopump for MBE | Brooks Automation, Inc. | On-Board 8 | |
Residual Gas Analyzer for MBE | Extorr, Inc. | XT200M | |
ALD Reaction Chamber | Huntington Mechanical Laboratories | N/A | Custom manufactured, hot-wall, stainless steel, rectangular (~20 cm long, 460 cm3) |
ALD Saturator | Swagelok/Larson Electronic Glass | See comments | Custom-built from parts supplied by Swagelok and Larson Electronic Glass. The saturator is made out of 316 stainless steel and Pyrex. All parts are connected via butt welding. Swagelok catalog numbers:SS-4-VCR-7-8VCRF, SS-4-VCR-1, SS-8-VCR-1-03816, SS-8-VCR-3-8MTW, 316L-12TB7-6-8, SS-8-VCR-9, SS-4-VCR-3-4MTW, SS-T2-S-028-20 Larson Electronic Glass catalog number: SP-075-T |
Manual Valves for Saturators | Swagelok | SS-DLVCR4-P and 6LVV-DPFR4-P. | Both diaphragm-sealed valves are used interchangably by this group. The specific connectors (VCR male/female/etc.) to use will depend on the actual system design. |
ALD Valves | Swagelok | 6LVV-ALD3TC333P-CV | |
ALD System Tubing | Swagelok | 316L tubing of various sizes. This group uses inner diameter of 1/4" | |
ALD power supply | AMETEK Programmable Power, Inc. | Sorensen DCS80-13E | |
ALD Temperature Controller | Schneider Electric | Eurotherm 818P4 | |
ALD Valve Controller | National Instruments | LabView | Program developed within the group |
XPS | VG Scienta | ||
RHEED | Staib Instruments | CB801420 | 18 keV at ~3° incident angle |
RHEED Analysis System | k-Space Associates | kSA 400 | |
Digital UV Ozone System | Novascan | PSD-UV 6 | |
Ozone Elimination System | Novascan | PSD-UV OES-1000D | |
Strontium bis(triisopropylcyclopentadienyl) | Air Liquide | HyperSr | Mildly reactive to air and water. Further information supplied by Air Liquide can be found at https://www.airliquide.de/inc/dokument.php/standard/1148/airliquide-hypersr-datasheet.pdf |
Titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) | Sigma-Aldrich | 87560 | Flammable in liquid and vapor phase |
Ge (001) wafer | MTI Corporation | GESBA100D05C1 | 4", single-side polished Sb-doped wafer with ρ ≈ 0.04 Ω-cm |
Argon (UHP) | Praxair | N/A | |
Deionized Water | N/A | N/A | 18.2 MΩ-cm |
Zapytaj o uprawnienia na użycie tekstu lub obrazów z tego artykułu JoVE
Zapytaj o uprawnieniaThis article has been published
Video Coming Soon
Copyright © 2025 MyJoVE Corporation. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone