A very low temperature (170 °C) crystallization of amorphous-Ge thin film on glass via Au induced layer exchange process in amorphous-Ge/GeOx/Au/glass stack and electrical characterization

Low Energy Ion-Induced Crystallization of Ge in c-Al/a-Ge Bilayer Thin Films at Low Temperatures of ∼125 °C

“…However, for the case of postannealed samples irradiated at the lowest fluence of 7 × 10 14 ions cm –2 and the highest fluence of 1 × 10 16 ions cm –2 , the rising edges and position of the Ge peaks shift toward the higher channel numbers and the peak intensities are found to decrease together with the shifting of the falling edges to the lower channel numbers, indicating the layer exchange of Ge. This means that the Ge is diffused toward the surface and the Al/Ge bilayer interface. , Moreover, the rising edges, falling edges, and positions of the Al peaks are found to shift toward the lower channel numbers along with the decreasing peak intensities, indicating the diffusion of Al at the interface and the occurrence of the layer exchange process during postannealing. It should be noted here that more layer exchange is observed for the postannealed samples irradiated at the fluence of 1 × 10 16 ions cm –2 than that at 7 × 10 14 ions cm –2 (as is also confirmed by optical micrographs and FE-SEM images).…”

“…This means that the Ge is diffused toward the surface and the Al/Ge bilayer interface. 34,35 Moreover, the rising edges, falling edges, and positions of the Al peaks are found to shift toward the lower channel numbers along with the decreasing peak intensities, indicating the diffusion of Al at the interface and the occurrence of the layer exchange process during postannealing. It should be noted here that more layer exchange is observed for the postannealed samples irradiated at the fluence of 1 × 10 16 ions cm −2 than that at 7 × 10 14 ions cm −2 (as is also confirmed by optical micrographs and FE-SEM images).…”

Residual stress, strain and defects: its effect on the band gap of poly-Ge thin film realized on glass via Au induced layer exchange crystallization process

“…We have prepared the polycrystalline (poly)-Ge thin film used in the present study using Au-induced layer exchange (AUILE) crystallization of an amorphous (a)-Ge(∼50 nm)/GeO x (∼1-2 nm)/Au(∼50 nm)/glass thin film stack. In figure 1, we depict the schematic illustration of the sample preparation using the AUILE process, and readers can find the details in our earlier work [3]. We performed the grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) measurements for structural phase characterization and the x-ray stress analysis using Cu kα (λ = 1.5046 angstrom) from a rotating Cu-anode source in a Discover D8 (Bruker) diffractometer.…”

“…In the context of the above discussion, we would like to highlight that several efforts have been directed toward using metals like Au, Al, etc. (in the form of metal-semiconductor bilayer) to catalyze the growth of polycrystalline (poly)-semiconductor (Ge, Si, or SiGe) thin films directly on various low-cost substrates at the lowest possible temperature (T), a scheme known as metal induced layer exchange (MILE) crystallization [3,4]. In such studies, the manifestation and evolution of stress play a major role by enabling layer exchange of the metal-semiconductor bilayer [5].…”

Crystallization of Ge thin films by Au-induced layer exchange: effect of Au layer thickness on Ge crystal orientation

“…This temperature is low enough to use plastic films such as polyimide for substrates and many advances have been reported for this system. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] In a recent work, 26) a multilayer structure of Au and amorphous Ge (a-Ge) with a very thin Au layer of 0.5 nm has been employed to promote the reaction between Au and a-Ge layers. This result implies that Au layer thickness has an important effect on crystallization behavior.…”