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Orientation-controlled Si films on transparent insulating substrates are strongly desired to achieve high-efficiency thin-film solar cells. We have developed the interfacial-oxide layer modulated Al-induced low temperature (<450 °C) crystallization technique, which enables dominantly (001) or (111)-oriented Si films with large grains (20–100 μm). These results are qualitatively explained on the basis of a model considering the phase transition of the interfacial Al oxide layers. This process provides the orientation-controlled Si templates on insulating substrates, which enables successive high quality epitaxial growth necessary for advanced Si thin-film solar cells.

To develop silicon-based spintronic devices, we have explored high-quality ferromagnetic Fe3Si/silicon (Si) structures. Using low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy at 130 • C, we realize epitaxial growth of ferromagnetic Fe3Si layers on Si (111) with keeping an abrupt interface, and the grown Fe3Si layer has the ordered DO3 phase. Measurements of magnetic and electrical properties for the Fe3Si/Si(111) yield a magnetic moment of ∼ 3.16 µB/f.u. at room temperature and a rectifying Schottky-diode behavior with the ideality factor of ∼ 1.08, respectively. PACS numbers:Semiconductor spintronic devices such as spin-field effect transistors (spin FET) are one of the possible candidates to substitute for existing silicon-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. [1,2,3,4] To realize operations of the spin FET, an electrical spin injection from ferromagnets into semiconductors is an essential technology. For III-V semiconductor devices, several groups have demonstrated highly efficient spin injection and detection using an epitaxial Fe thin film and tailored Schottky tunnel barriers so far. [5,6,7] From these facts, it is necessary for semiconductor spintronics to develop crystal growth techniques of ferromagnets on semiconductors with keeping high-quality interfaces. In particular, it will become key to build epitaxial growth of ferromagnets on silicon (Si) from the viewpoint of application to existing silicon large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) technologies. [8] Moreover, for spintronics, Si has been regarded as an ideal material because of a long spin relaxation time due to weak spin-orbit interaction, weak hyperfine interaction and lattice inversion symmetry, which will give rise to a long spin diffusion length in the devices. Recently, spin transport in Si conduction channels was experimentally demonstrated although their operations were limited at low temperatures. [9,10,11] This means that the spin degree of freedom can be introduced into Si-based electronic devices.To date, ferromagnetic MnAs thin films have been grown epitaxially on Si (001), [12] but electrical spin injection from MnAs into Si across a Schottky tunnel barrier has never been demonstrated unfortunately. Also, the Curie temperature of MnAs is ∼ 315 K, [13] which may be relatively low for an operation temperature of future LSIs. Thus, possibilities of other high-Curie temperature materials compatible with Si should be explored. Here we select a ferromagnetic Heusler alloy Fe 3 Si thin film, which has a high Curie temperature above 800 K, a relatively high spin polarization of ∼ 45 % and a small coercive field of ∼ 7.5 Oe. [14] In this letter, we achieve highly

We demonstrate electrical injection and detection of spin-polarized electrons in silicon (Si) using epitaxially grown Fe3Si/Si Schottky-tunnel-barrier contacts. By an insertion of a δ-doped n + -Si layer (∼ 10 19 cm −3 ) near the interface between a ferromagnetic Fe3Si contact and a Si channel (∼ 10 15 cm −3 ), we achieve a marked enhancement in the tunnel conductance for reverse-bias characteristics of the Fe3Si/Si Schottky diodes. Using laterally fabricated four-probe geometries with the modified Fe3Si/Si contacts, we detect nonlocal output signals which originate from the spin accumulation in a Si channel at low temperatures. PACS numbers:To solve critical issues caused by the scaling limit of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, spin-based electronics (spintronics) has been studied.[1] For semiconductor spintronic applications, an electrical spin injection from a ferromagnet (FM) into a semiconductor (SC) and its detection are crucial techniques.Recently, methods for spin injection and/or detection in silicon (Si) were explored intensely [2,3,4,5,6,7] because Si has a long spin relaxation time and is compatible with the current industrial semiconductor technologies. Although electrical detections of spin transport in Si conduction channels were demonstrated by two research groups, [4,5] an insulating Al 2 O 3 tunnel barrier between FM and Si was utilized for efficient spin injection and/or detection. To realize gate-tunable spin devices, e.g., spin metal-oxidesemiconductor field effect transistors (spin MOSFET), [8] demonstrations of electrical spin injection and detection in Si conduction channels using Schottky tunnel-barrier contacts will become considerably important. [9,10] By low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (LTMBE), we recently demonstrated highly epitaxial growth of a binary Heusler alloy Fe 3 Si on Si and obtained an atomically abrupt heterointerface. [11] In this letter, inserting a heavily doped n + -Si layer near the abrupt interface between Fe 3 Si and n-Si, we achieve an effective Shottky tunnel barrier for spin injection into Si. Using nonlocal signal measurements, we demonstrate electrical injection and detection of spin-polarized electrons in Si conduction channels though the Schottky-tunnel-barrier contacts.The n + -Si layer was formed on n-Si(111) (n ∼ 4.5 × 10 15 cm −3 ) by a combination of the Si solid-phase epitaxy with an Sb δ-doping process, [12] where the carrier * E-mail: hamaya@ed.kyushu-u.ac.jp † E-mail: miyao@ed.kyushu-u.ac.jp concentration of the n + -Si layer was ∼ 2.3 × 10 19 cm −3 , determined by Hall effect measurements, and ∼ 10-nmthick non-doped Si layer was grown on the Sb δ-doped layer. Ferromagnetic Fe 3 Si layers with a thickness of ∼ 50 nm were grown by LTMBE at 130 • C, as shown in our previous work.[11] The interface between Fe 3 Si and n + -Si was comparable to that shown in Ref. 11. To evaluate electrical properties of the Fe 3 Si/Si Schottky contacts, we firstly fabricated two different Schottky diodes (∼ 1 mm in diameter) with and w...

We study electrical properties of metal/Ge contacts with an atomically controlled interface, and compare them with those with a disordered one, where atomically controlled interfaces can be demonstrated by using Fe3Si/Ge(111) contacts. We find that the Schottky barrier height of Fe3Si/n-Ge(111) contacts is unexpectedly lower than those induced by the strong Fermi-level pinning at other metal/n-Ge contacts. For Fe3Si/p-Ge(111) contacts, we identify clear rectifying behavior in I-V characteristics at low temperatures, which is also different from I-V features due to the strong Fermi-level pinning at other metal/p-Ge contacts. These results indicate that there is an extrinsic contribution such as dangling bonds to the Fermi-level pinning effect at the directly connected metal/Ge contacts.