Structural and electrical properties of laser-crystallized nanocrystalline Ge films and nanocrystalline Ge/SiNx multilayers

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/22/10/107201

Abstract Nanocrystalline Ge (nc-Ge) single layers and nc-Ge/SiN_x multilayers are prepared by laser annealing amorphous Ge (a-Ge) films and a-Ge/SiN_x multilayers. The microstructures as well as the electrical properties of laser-crystallized samples are systematically studied by using various techniques. It is found that the optical band gap of nc-Ge film is reduced compared with its amorphous counterpart. The formed nc-Ge film is of p-type, and the dark conductivity is enhanced by 6 orders for an nc-Ge single layer and 4 orders for a multilayer. It is suggested that the carrier transport mechanism is dominant by the thermally activation process via the nanocrystal, which is different from the thermally annealed nc-Ge sample at an intermediate temperature. The carrier mobility of nc-Ge film can reach as high as about 39.4 cm²·V^-1·s^-1, which indicates their potential applications in future nano-devices.

Keywords: nanocrystalline Ge microstructure carrier transport mobility

Received: 21 February 2013
Revised: 19 April 2013
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	72.20.Ee	(Mobility edges; hopping transport)
	73.63.-b	(Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures)
	78.20.-e	(Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films)
	78.67.Bf	(Nanocrystals, nanoparticles, and nanoclusters)

Fund: Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB632101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11274155 and 61036001), and Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Jiangsu Province, China.

Corresponding Authors: Xu Jun
E-mail: junxu@nju.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Li Cong (李悰), Xu Jun (徐骏), Li Wei (李伟), Jiang Xiao-Fan (江小帆), Sun Sheng-Hua (孙胜华), Xu Ling (徐岭), Chen Kun-Ji (陈坤基) Structural and electrical properties of laser-crystallized nanocrystalline Ge films and nanocrystalline Ge/SiN_x multilayers 2013 Chin. Phys. B 22 107201

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Structural and electrical properties of laser-crystallized nanocrystalline Ge films and nanocrystalline Ge/SiNx multilayers

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Structural and electrical properties of laser-crystallized nanocrystalline Ge films and nanocrystalline Ge/SiN_x multilayers