Epitaxial growth of BaSi₂ films with large grains using vicinal Si(111) substrates

Abstract

a‐axis oriented BaSi2 epitaxial films were grown on vicinal Si(111) using molecular beam epitaxy. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the grain size of BaSi2 was increased up to 6.0 μm ×1.0 μm, stretching along Si〈1$ \bar 1 $0〉 rather than Si〈11$ \bar 2 $〉. Electron backscatter diffraction showed that half of the surface was covered with this elongated epitaxial variant. Kelvin probe force microscopy indicated that grain boundaries of these grains do not work as recombination center for minority carriers (holes). On the other hand, randomly‐oriented small grains work as recombination areas. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)