AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS-TuP

Paper NS-TuP19
Comparison of Oxidation Behaviors of Si1-xGex Nanowires

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Poster Session
Presenter: S.Y. Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
Authors: S.Y. Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
S.W. Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
D.-H. Ko, Yonsei University, Korea
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Conventional devices came to have issues as scaling down. One of the methods to overcome the limit of scaling down is semiconductor nanowires and because of their potential application for nano-scale devices they have received considerable attention during the past years. Compared to other semiconductor nanowires, Si & Si1-xGex nanowires are more important as for the base-materials of future nano-scale device because of their special merit of being compatible with current silicon device fabrication processes. In addition to this, Si & Si1-xGex nanowires are suitable candidates for investigating characteristics associated with quantum size effects. Among the conventional Si-compatible processes, the oxidation properties are of great interests so we investigated the oxidation of Si1-xGex nanowires at the point of Ge behaviors during oxidation. Si1-xGex nanowires were grown in a LPCVD by VLS method. Source gases of SiH4 and GeH4 were used for growing Si1-xGex nanowires on Si (111) substrates. Thin gold layer was deposited as catalyst, and Ge contents of Si1-xGex nanowires were controlled to 15% and 30%. Grown nanowires were thermally oxidized in the vertical furnace with the various temperature and time. After oxidation, grown oxide thicknesses were measured by TEM methods and compositions of oxide and remain nanowires were analyzed by TEM and EDS methods. Comparing the oxidation characteristics of the Si1-xGex nanowire with those of Si nanowires and (100) Si wafer, it is concluded that Ge plays a significant role in deciding an oxidation characteristics and oxidation characteristics of Si1-xGex nanowires can be affected by Ge contents as well as nanowire size.