We present the morphological evolution obtained during the annealing of Ge strips grown on Si ridges as a prototypical process for 3D device architectures and nanophotonic applications. In particular, the morphological transition occurring from Ge/Si nanostrips to nanoislands is illustrated. The combined effect of performing annealing at different temperatures and varying the lateral size of the Si ridge underlying the Ge strips is addressed by means of a synergistic experimental and theoretical analysis. Indeed, three-dimensional phase-field simulations of surface diffusion, including the contributions of both surface and elastic energy, are exploited to understand the outcomes of annealing experiments. The breakup of Ge/Si strips, due to the activation of surface diffusion at high temperature, is found to be mainly driven by surface-energy reduction, thus pointing to a Rayleigh-like instability. The residual strain is found to play a minor role, only inducing local effects at the borders of the islands and an enhancement of the instability.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
8 January 2018
Research Article|
January 08 2018
Morphological evolution of Ge/Si nano-strips driven by Rayleigh-like instability
Marco Salvalaglio
;
Marco Salvalaglio
a)
1
Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden
, 01062 Dresden, Germany
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Peter Zaumseil
;
Peter Zaumseil
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Yuji Yamamoto;
Yuji Yamamoto
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Oliver Skibitzki;
Oliver Skibitzki
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Roberto Bergamaschini
;
Roberto Bergamaschini
3
Department of Materials Science, Università di Milano-Bicocca
, Via R. Cozzi 55, I-20126 Milano, Italy
Search for other works by this author on:
Thomas Schroeder;
Thomas Schroeder
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Axel Voigt
;
Axel Voigt
1
Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden
, 01062 Dresden, Germany
4
Dresden Center for Computational Materials Science (DCMS), TU Dresden
, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Search for other works by this author on:
Giovanni Capellini
Giovanni Capellini
2
IHP
, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
5
Department of Sciences, Università Roma Tre
, Viale Marconi 446, I-00146 Roma, Italy
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
Electronic mail: marco.salvalaglio@tu-dresden.de
Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 022101 (2018)
Article history
Received:
October 04 2017
Accepted:
December 23 2017
Citation
Marco Salvalaglio, Peter Zaumseil, Yuji Yamamoto, Oliver Skibitzki, Roberto Bergamaschini, Thomas Schroeder, Axel Voigt, Giovanni Capellini; Morphological evolution of Ge/Si nano-strips driven by Rayleigh-like instability. Appl. Phys. Lett. 8 January 2018; 112 (2): 022101. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007937
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Citing articles via
Roadmap on photonic metasurfaces
Sebastian A. Schulz, Rupert. F. Oulton, et al.
Special topic on Wide- and ultrawide-bandgap electronic semiconductor devices
Joachim Würfl, Tomás Palacios, et al.
Feedback cooling of an insulating high-Q diamagnetically levitated plate
S. Tian, K. Jadeja, et al.