Silicon-germanium and platinum silicide nanostructures for silicon based photonics

This paper reports a study of two types of silicon based nanostructures prospective for applications in photonics. The first ones are Ge/Si(001) structures forming at room temperature and reconstructing after annealing at 600°C. Germanium, being deposited from a molecular beam at room temperature on the Si(001) surface, forms a thin granular film composed of Ge particles with sizes of a few nanometers. A characteristic feature of these films is that they demonstrate signs of the 2 x 1 structure in their RHEED patterns. After short-term annealing at 600°C under the closed system conditions, the granular films reconstruct to heterostructures consisting of a Ge wetting layer and oval clusters of Ge. A mixed type c (4x2) + p (2x2) reconstruction typical to the low-temperature MBE (T gr c (4x2)-reconstructed wetting layer typical to high-temperature MBE (T gr 3 Si has the lowest sheet resistance among the Pt silicides. However, the development of a process of thin Pt3Si films formation is a challenging task. This paper describes formation of a thin Pt 3 Si/Pt2Si structures at room temperature on poly-Si films. Special attention is paid upon formation of poly-Si and amorphous Si films on Si 3 N 4 substrates at low temperatures.