Interfacial abruptness in Si/SiGe heteroepitaxy grown by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

High-quality Si/Si1-xGex strained-layer superlattices have been grown in the temperature range 525 degrees C-550 degrees C by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition. We employed X-ray reflection and high-resolution double-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements to study the dimensional and compositional variations in a Si/Si1-xGex superlattice. From the X-ray reflection results, the interfacial roughness of Si layers on SiGe, and SiGe layers on Si, is 0.1nm for growth at 525 degrees C and 0.2nm for growth at 550 degrees C. A simple model for estimating the interfacial abruptness of Si/Si1-xGex heterojunctions is proposed. In this model, a transition region with a linearly graded Ge composition is assumed to exist at both Si/Si1-xGex interfaces. The Ge composition x of a Si/Si1-xGex superlattice is found to increase with the growth time at a constant gas phase composition. This phenomenon can be explained by this model, and the thickness of the transition region and the transition time can be extracted from these fitting results. The transition thicknesses are found to be about 0.3-0.7nm for growth at 525 degrees C and 1-1.5nm for growth at 550 degrees C.