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Amorphous/Crystalline Structure And Phase Transformations InMetastable Semiconducting Ge1−xSnx

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Susanne M. Lee
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave., Livermore, CA 94550 and, Lawrence University, Dept. of Physics, P. O.Box 599, Appleton, WI 54912
Katayun Barmak
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, 5 East Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA 18015.
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Abstract

The semiconducting crystalline alloys, Ge1−xSnx, areof interest due to theoretical predictions about their electronic bandstructures which make them useful in infrared photodetectors. However thecomposition region where these alloys have the desired properties is greaterthan the equilibrium solid solubility limit of Sn in Ge (x<0.01). We havecircumvented the solubility limits and produced thin (2000Å) and thick(4–8Μm) films of Gei.xSnx (x<0.31) by rfsputtering. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) Measurements wereperformed to study grain growth and crystallization processes in thesehighly metastable semiconductors. X-ray and electron diffractionmeasurements indicated the materials were amorphous, but the fact that someof the films were fine grained polycrystalline samples only became apparentin their DSC spectra. We present models that describe quantitatively thetransformation behavior in both sets of films.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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References

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