Rapid isothermal processing of strained GeSi layers

Abstract

A cold-wall rapid thermal processor was used to study the oxidation and annealing properties of Ge/sub x/Si/sub 1-x/ strained layers. The dry oxidation rate of Ge/sub x/Si/sub 1-x/ was found to be the same as that of Si, while the wet oxidation rate was found to be higher than that of Si, and the oxidation rate increases with the Ge concentration (up to 20% in this study). A high fixed oxide charge density (>5*10/sup 11//cm/sup 2/) and interface trap level density (>10/sup 12//cm/sup 2/-eV) at the oxide interface have been determined from capacitance-voltage measurements. Using techniques such as X-ray rocking curve analysis and I-V and C-V measurements of the p-n heterojunction it was found that the degradation of electronic properties of metastable Ge/sub x/Si/sub 1-x/ strained layers during rapid thermal annealing are related to the formation of structural defects at the heterointerfaces.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>