Evolution of the surface morphology of homoepitaxial germanium(001) and heteropitaxial silicon(0.5) germanium(0.5)/germanium(001) deposited by molecular beam epitaxy at reduced temperatures

We present comprehensive experimental results on the fashion in which the Ge(001) surface roughens as a function of film thickness, deposition temperature, and substrate miscut. The results allow us to write empirical expressions for feature spacing and roughness amplitude of the growing surface over a wide range of film thicknesses and deposition temperatures. We show that layer-by-layer growth on a singular surface in the presence of a small Ehrlich-Schwoebel leads to mound formation, and, from our experimental results, we extract an activation energy for the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier of $\rm E\sb{ES}\approx 1meV$ for Ge(001). The effect of the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier does not diminish with an increase in deposition temperature, and hence the transition of the growth mode from multilayer to step flow is due to the competing process of smoothing becoming the dominant mechanism. Deposition on a vicinal surface miscut in the (011) results in the formation of elongated mounds bounded by $\{105\}$ facets.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Materials Science and Engineerin

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Van Nostrand, Joseph Edward

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cahill, David G.

• Physics, Condensed Matter
• Engineering, Materials Science

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1996 Van Nostrand, Joseph Edward

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

9780591199512
AAI9712469
(UMI)AAI9712469

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22547