Papers by Author: G. Weidner

Abstract: The crystallographic structure of semiconductor - insulator - semiconductor (SIS) structures consisting of a Si(111) substrate, Pr2O3 and Y2O3 insulating high-k materials, and Si cap layer was characterized by a combination of X-ray pole figure measurement and conventional X-ray diffraction. Oxide and Si cap layer were grown by molecular beam epitaxy and have the same 111 lattice orientation as the substrate. It is shown that the oxide layers grow in a type B stacking orientation only, while the epi-layer exhibits exclusively the same type A orientation as the substrate. A small fraction of the epi-Si lattice was identified with 511 netplanes parallel to the surface. TEM investigations identify these areas as structural defects between Si grains of differing stacking sequence.

Abstract: The use of heteroepitaxial Si / Pr2O3 / Si(111) systems as semiconductor-insulatorsemiconductor (SIS) stacks in future applications requires a detailed structural characterization. We used X-ray reflectivity (XRR) to control layer thickness and interface roughness, standard X-ray diffraction (XRD) to analyze the Pr2O3 phase, orientation and crystal perfection, and grazing incidence XRD to study the thin epitaxial Si top layer. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to prove the results by direct imaging on a microscopic scale. Pr2O3 grows epitaxially in its hexagonal phase and (0001) orientation on Si(111) substrates. An epitaxial Si overgrowth in (111) orientation and good perfection is possible, but such Si layers exhibit two stacking twins, one with the same in-plane orientation as the substrate and one rotated by 180° around the Si [111] direction.