UHV-CVD Growth of High Quality GeSn Using SnCl4: From Growth Optimization to Prototype Devices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an optimized chemical vapor deposition process for high-quality GeSn films with high Sn incorporation, enabling the fabrication of prototype mid-infrared photodetectors for Si photonics.

Contribution

It introduces an optimized growth regime for GeSn using SnCl4, improving Sn incorporation and material quality, and demonstrates prototype device applications.

Findings

High Sn incorporation achieved with optimized parameters

Suppressed Sn precipitation in GeSn films

Prototype GeSn photoconductors show promising performance

Abstract

The persistent interest of the epitaxy of group IV alloy GeSn is mainly driven by the demand of efficient light source that could be monolithically integrated on Si for mid-infrared Si photonics. For chemical vapor deposition of GeSn, the exploration of parameter window is difficult from the beginning due to its non-equilibrium growth condition. In this work, we demonstrated the effective pathway to achieve the high quality GeSn with high Sn incorporation. The GeSn films were grown on Ge-buffered Si via ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition using GeH4 and SnCl4 as precursor gasses. The influence of both SnCl4 flow fraction and growth temperature on the Sn incorporation and material quality were investigated. The key to achieve effective Sn incorporation and high material quality is to explore the proper parameter match between SnCl4 supply and growth temperature, which is also called optimized growth regime. The Sn precipitation is significantly suppressed in optimized growth regime, leading to more Sn incorporation into Ge and enhanced material quality. The prototype GeSn photoconductors were fabricated with typical samples, showing the promising devices applications towards mid-infrared optoelectronics.