Electrical and Optical Characterization of Si-Ge-Sn

Author

Merle D. Hamilton

Date of Award

3-22-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

First Advisor

Yung Kee Yeo, PhD.

Abstract

The electrical characterization of boron-doped p-Si_0.08Ge_0.90Sn_0.02/p-Ge(100) and p-Si_0.112Ge_0.86Sn_0.028/n-Si(100) with various epilayer thicknesses was measured using the Hall effect. The room temperature sheet carrier concentration ranged from 1.21 x 10¹³ – 1.32 x 10¹⁶ cm^-2. The room temperature mobilities were measured to be between 166 and 717 cm²/V·s, depending on sample composition. In the low temperature regime, the mobility was mainly affected by ionized impurity scattering. In the high temperature regime, the mobility was mainly affected by both alloy and lattice scattering. The acceptor activation energy was estimated to be 10.7 meV. The Hall data indicated that an interfacial layer between the epilayer and substrate participated in both carrier concentration and hall mobility measurements. From the results of infrared transmission measurements of the p-Si_0.08Ge_0.90Sn_0.02/p-Ge(100) at room temperature, an effective mass was estimated to be m_hh = 0.30m , m_lh = 0.051m, m_so = 0.79m, and Δε = 0.30 eV, where Δε is the splitting between heavy hole and split-off valence bands. The indirect and direct bandgap energy values for the p-Si_0.112Ge_0.86Sn_0.028/n-Si(100) were estimated to be 0.780 eV and 0.845 eV, respectively. The results of photoluminescence measured at 15 K, for the p-Si_0.08Ge_0.90Sn_0.02/p-Ge(100) sample with a 600 nm film thickness, revealed the onset of a luminescence peak at 0.885 eV.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-APPLPHY-ENP-12-M06

DTIC Accession Number

ADA557439

Recommended Citation

Hamilton, Merle D., "Electrical and Optical Characterization of Si-Ge-Sn" (2012). Theses and Dissertations. 1176.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/1176