Low Resistance III-V Hetero-contacts to N-Ge

TL;DR

This study demonstrates low-resistance InGaAs/Ge hetero-contacts with minimal temperature dependence, achieved through interface engineering and doping strategies, promising improved contact performance for Ge-based devices.

Contribution

First experimental demonstration of low-resistance III-V/Ge hetero-contacts with temperature-independent behavior and insights into interface effects on contact resistivity.

Findings

Achieved contact resistivity of 5×10^{-8} Ω·cm^2 at high doping levels.

Observed no temperature dependence of heterointerface conduction.

Identified interface defects and doping as key factors influencing contact resistance.

Abstract

We experimentally study III-V/Ge heterostructure and demonstrate InGaAs hetero-contacts to n-Ge with a wide range of In % and achieve low contact resistivity ($\rho_C$) of $5\times10^{-8} \Omega\cdot cm^2$ for Ge doping of $3 \times 10^{19} cm^{-3}$. This results from re-directing the charge neutrality level (CNL) near the conduction band and benefiting from low effective mass for high electron transmission. For the first time, we observe that the heterointerface presents no temperature dependence despite the two different conduction minimum valley locations of III-V ($\Gamma$-valley) and Ge (L-valley), which potentially stems from elastic trap-assisted tunneling through defect states at the interface generated by dislocations. The hetero-interface plays a dominant role in the overall $\rho_C$ below $\approx 1 \times 10^{-7} \Omega \cdot cm^2$, which can be further improved with large active dopant concentration in Ge by co-doping.