Thomas J. Watson

Inhibited SN Surface Segregation in Epitaxial SN x GE 1-x Alloy Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Epitaxial and compositionally homogeneous Sn x Ge 1-x alloy films have been grown on Si (001) by pulsed laser deposition using elemental Sn and Ge targets. these results demonstrate that pulsed laser deposition can be used to grow alloys by overcoming the strong tendency for Sn surface segregation seen in growth by other methods such as molecular beam epitaxy.

Rapid Selective Annealing of Cu Thin Films on Si Using Microwaves

A major goal of the semiconductor indurstry is to lower the processing temperatures needed for interconnects in silicon integrated circuits. Typical rapid thermal annealing processes heat the film as well as the substrate, creating device problems.

Empirical Interatomic Potential for Si-H Interactions

An empirical TersofF-type interatomic potential has been developed for describing Si-H interactions. The potential gives a reasonable fit to bond lengths, angles and energetics of silicon hydride molecules and hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces. The frequencies of most vibrational modes are within 15% of the experimental and ab initio theory values. The potential is computationally efficient and suitable for molecular dynamics investigations of various processing treatments of hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces.

Designing high-Q silicon-on-insulator optical resonators for planar device integration

Design considerations for quasi-planar, high-Q, silicon-on-insulator microphotonic resonators are presented. A figure of merit for use in comparison between microphotonic designs is presented and applied to compare existing and proposed designs.

A Phase Diagram of Low Temperature Epitaxial Silicon Grown by Hot-wire Chemical Vapor Deposition for Photovoltaic Devices

We have investigated the low-temperature epitaxial growth of thin silicon films by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). Using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have found conditions for epitaxial growth at low temperatures achieving twinned epitaxial growth up to 6.8 µm on Si(100) substrates at a substrate temperature of 230°C. This opens the possibility of growing high quality films on low cost substrates. The H_2:SiH_4 dilution ratio was set to 50:1 for all growths. Consistent with previous results, the epitaxial thickness is found to decrease with an increase in the substrate temperature.