Effectiveness of SiGe Buffer Layers in Reducing Dark Currents of Ge-on-Si Photodetectors

Author

Huang, Zhihong ; Oh, Jungwoo ; Banerjee, Sanjay K. ; Campbell, Joe C.

Author_Institution

Coll. of Eng., Texas Univ., Austin, TX

Volume

43

Issue

3

fYear

2007

fDate

3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

238

Lastpage

242

Abstract

The effectiveness of thin SiGe buffer layers in terminating threading dislocations and reducing photodiode dark current for Ge epitaxially grown on Si (001) has been investigated. The structural morphology of the films was studied by atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The dark current of Ge on Si photodiodes can be reduced by over an order of magnitude by incorporating two different composition SiGe buffer layers. The origin of dark current and the effectiveness of thermal annealing the SiGe layers were also studied

Keywords

atomic force microscopy; buffer layers; dark conductivity; elemental semiconductors; germanium; photodetectors; silicon; silicon compounds; surface morphology; transmission electron microscopy; Ge-Si; Ge-on-Si photodetectors; SiGe; SiGe buffer layers; atomic force microscopy; dark currents; structural morphology; thermal annealing; threading dislocations; transmission electron microscopy; Atomic force microscopy; Atomic layer deposition; Buffer layers; Dark current; Germanium silicon alloys; Morphology; Photodetectors; Photodiodes; Silicon germanium; Transmission electron microscopy; Germanium; photodetector; photodiode; silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2006.890395

Filename

4084610