Kentarou Sawano

Cubic Rashba spin-orbit interaction of a two-dimensional hole gas in a strained-Ge/SiGe quantum well.

The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) of a two-dimensional hole gas in the inversion symmetric semiconductor Ge is studied in a strained-Ge/SiGe quantum well structure. We observe weak antilocalization (WAL) in the magnetoconductivity measurement, revealing that the WAL feature can be fully described by the k-cubic Rashba SOI theory. Furthermore, we demonstrate electric field control of the Rashba SOI. Our findings reveal that the heavy hole (HH) in strained Ge is a purely cubic Rashba system, which is consistent with the spin angular momentum m(j) = ± 3/2 nature of the HH wave function.

An ultra-thin buffer layer for Ge epitaxial layers on Si

Using an Fe3Si insertion layer, we study epitaxial growth of Ge layers on a Si substrate by a low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy technique. When we insert only a 10-nm-thick Fe3Si layer in between Si and Ge, epitaxial Ge layers can be obtained on Si. The detailed structural characterizations reveal that a large lattice mismatch of ∼4% is completely relaxed in the Fe3Si layer. This means that the Fe3Si layers can become ultra-thin buffer layers for Ge on Si. This method will give a way to realize a universal buffer layer for Ge, GaAs, and related devices on a Si platform.

Suppression of surface segregation of the phosphorous δ-doping layer by insertion of an ultra-thin silicon layer for ultra-shallow Ohmic contacts on n-type germanium

We demonstrate the formation of abrupt phosphorus (P) δ-doping profiles in germanium (Ge) by the insertion of ultra-thin silicon (Si) layers. The Si layers at the δ-doping region significantly suppress the surface segregation of P during the molecular beam epitaxial growth of Ge and high-concentration active P donors are confined within a few nm of the initial doping position. The current-voltage characteristics of the P δ-doped layers with Si insertion show excellent Ohmic behaviors with low enough resistivity for ultra-shallow Ohmic contacts on n-type Ge.

Compressively strained Si/Si1−xCx heterostructures formed on Ar ion implanted Si(100) substrates

We demonstrate that compressively strained Si/Si1−xCx heterostructures are epitaxially grown on Ar ion implanted Si substrates. The ion-implantation-induced defects are found to promote strain relaxation in the Si1−xCx layers, which accompanies an increase in the substitutional C concentrations. The top Si layers are strained on the Si1−xCx layers for all samples, and thus the increase in the substitutional C concentration based on strain relaxation in the Si1−xCx layers is very important for the control of the compressive strain in the top Si layer.

Suppression of segregation of the phosphorus δ-doping layer in germanium by incorporation of carbon

The successful formation of abrupt phosphorus (P) δ-doping profiles in germanium (Ge) is reported. When the P δ-doping layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) directly on Ge wafers whose surfaces had residual carbon impurities, more than a half the phosphorus atoms were confined successfully within a few nm of the initial doping position even after the growth of Ge capping layers on the top. On the other hand, the same P layers grown on Ge buffer layers that had much less carbon showed significantly broadened P concentration profiles. Current–voltage characteristics of Au/Ti/Ge capping/P δ-doping/n-Ge structures having the abrupt P δ-doping layers with carbon assistance showed excellent ohmic behaviors when P doses were higher than 1 × 1014 cm−2 and the capping layer thickness was as thin as 5 nm. Therefore, the insertion of carbon around the P doping layer is a useful way of realizing ultrashallow junctions in Ge.

Ultralarge transient optical gain from tensile-strained, n-doped germanium on silicon by spin-on dopant diffusion

The direct band gap optical gain of tensile-strained, highly n-doped germanium on silicon is investigated by femtosecond ultrafast transmittance spectroscopy. A germanium film with 0.22% tensile strain is grown on a silicon substrate by using molecular beam epitaxy. An activated doping concentration up to 4 × 1019 cm−3 is achieved by phosphorus diffusion from a spin-on dopant source. The transmittance of the germanium film is clearly increased upon increasing the pump power. A peak optical gain of up to 5300 cm−1 around 1.7 µm and a gain spectrum broader than 300 nm are obtained. These results show a simple yet promising way to realize gain medium for monolithic-integrated germanium lasers.

Highly n-doped germanium-on-insulator microdisks with circular Bragg gratings

We demonstrate germanium (Ge) microdisks surrounded by highly reflective circular Bragg gratings on highly n-doped germanium-on-insulator (GOI) substrate. The GOI substrate is fabricated by wafer bonding from Ge grown on Si substrate, and n-type doping concentration of 2.1×1019 cm-3 is achieved by phosphorus diffusion from a spin-on-dopant source. Very sharp Fabry-Perot resonant peaks with high contrast fringes and Q-factors up to 400 are observed near the direct band gap of Ge in photoluminescence spectra. The reflectivity of gratings are enhanced by a factor larger than 3 in a wide wavelength range from 1.57 to 1.82 µm, compared with that of Ge/SiO2 interfaces in normal microdisks without circular Bragg gratings. The surface emission intensity of the devices is found to be increased by the grating period. Our results indicate that GOI microdisk with circular Bragg grating is a promising optical resonator structure suitable for realizing low threshold, compact Ge lasers integrated on Si substrate.

Enhanced light emission from germanium microdisks on silicon by surface passivation through thermal oxidation

We have observed enhanced direct-gap light emission from undoped and n-doped germanium microdisks on silicon. The enhancement is attributed mainly to increased carrier density due to surface passivation of the dry-etched sidewall. The enhancement factor increases as the disk size decreases, approaching 4 for microdisks with radii of 1 µm. To achieve maximum enhancement and not modify the geometric structure of resonators, 450–500 °C is found to be the best temperature window. Thermal oxidation is also effective for the degraded interface induced by sputtered Al2O3. These results indicate that thermal oxidation is a promising method suitable for fabrication of low-threshold germanium lasers.