Microphotoluminescence and perfect ordering of SiGe islands on pit-patterned Si(001) substrates

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Published 11 March 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation Florian Hackl et al 2011 Nanotechnology 22 165302 DOI 10.1088/0957-4484/22/16/165302

0957-4484/22/16/165302

Abstract

We show that both the morphology and the optoelectronic properties of SiGe islands growing in the pits of periodically pre-patterned Si(001) substrates are determined by the amount of Ge deposited per unit cell of the pattern. Pit-periods (p) ranging from 300 to 900 nm were investigated, and Ge growth was performed by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at temperatures of 690 and 760 °C. The ordered SiGe islands show photoluminescence (PL) emission, which becomes almost completely quenched, once a critical island volume is exceeded. By atomic force and transmission electron microscope images we identify the transition from pyramid-shaped to dome-shaped islands with increasing p. Eventually, the nucleation of dislocations in the islands leads to PL quenching. Below a critical Ge coverage a narrowing and a blue shift of the PL emission is observed, as compared to islands grown on a planar reference area of the same sample.

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