Nucleation of Ge dots on the C-alloyed Si(001) surface

Isotopically controlled self-assembled Ge/Si nanostructures

“…An additional set of measurements on Ge islands grown on carbon-free Si(0 0 1) is required to verify the influence of carbon contaminants on surface mass transport process and WL-3D interactions during the growth of Ge islands. From the previous studies [16], one may expect that the presence of carbon at the surface may affect the diffusivity process describing the random walk of the surface event that dominates the mass transport. The observed decrease in island density suggests that carbon can arrange in metastable surface sites which are responsible for the increase of adatom mobility.…”

“…Direct observation of carbon-induced cð4 Â 4Þ reconstruction on Si(0 0 1) surface hints at a selective deposition of Ge in carbonfree regions. The repulsive interaction between Ge and C may also contribute to this selective growth [16].…”

“…In fact, several works have demonstrated that common laboratory air can be a source of carbon (or carbon bearing) impurities on H-passivated silicon surfaces [15]. The influence of carbon on Ge/Si heteroepitaxy was the subject of numerous studies in which carbon impurities were intentionally introduced [16]. The pre-deposition of a fraction of a monolayer of C on Si(0 0 1) creates an inhomogeneous Si 1Àx C x layer that strongly influences island formation.…”

Influence of the surface-termination of hexagonal SiC(0001) on the temperature dependences of Ge growth modes and desorption

“…Together with the lattice mismatch motor that governs the well-known SK growth mode of Ge on Si, differentiated chemical interactions of Ge, either with Si-or C-rich SiC surfaces, are expected to be alternative ways for modifying drastically the growth modes. Similar ways of thinking have been used when depositing Ge on pseudo-Si substrates that are manipulated by a carbon (C)-seeding before Ge growth [14][15][16][17]. It has been demonstrated that the presence of a submonolayer C-amount, and a C-related c(4 · 4) reconstruction, is able to make the growth mode to transiet from the SK mode to a Volmer-Weber one.…”

Density control on self-assembling of Ge islands using carbon-alloyed strained SiGe layers

“…9͒ or surface alloying with carbon. 14,15 In this Letter we present a different route for manipulating Ge island self-assembling based on the combination of epitaxial growth on strained SiGe buffer layers and carbon predeposition. Inspired by our recent results on the influence of Si interdiffusion and the Ge-C repulsive interaction on the resulting Ge dot topography 15 we make use of the effect that a submonolayer deposition of C has on the Ge adatom diffusion.…”