A special solid-phase epitaxy technique utilizing the surfactant B for the growth of crystalline Si-QWs on CaF2∕Si(111) enabled us to grow CaF2∕Si∕CaF2 double-barrier diodes exhibiting resonant tunneling effects from 77K up to room temperature with peak voltages at 0.2eV, which is very close to simple resonant tunneling model predictions. The peak voltages and currents were virtually independent of temperature. No trapping or hysteresis effects were found in the I–V characteristics which exhibited 2–7 orders of magnitude larger peak current densities than previously reported CaF2∕Si∕CaF2 RTDs.
Boron surfactant enhanced solid-phase epitaxy (SPE) of thin Si films on CaF2∕Si(111) substrates has been studied. Two different growth processes were investigated. In the first process, 1ML of boron atoms was predeposited on the CaF2 surface at room temperature before Si evaporation followed by an anneal to 635°C. This resulted in Si cluster formation. The surface morphology of the Si layer did not show any improvement compared to SPE without surfactant. In the second process, boron atoms were deposited directly on top of the amorphous Si film. This resulted in continuous and smooth epitaxial Si layers on CaF2 with a sharp B-induced (3×3)R30° surface reconstruction after annealing.
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