Very low-temperature epitaxial growth of silicon and germanium using plasma-assisted CVD

By electron-cyclotron resonance Ar plasma enhanced chemical-vapor deposition, Si and Ge epitaxial growth on Si(100) were achieved without substrate heating using SiH₄ and GeH₄, respectively, and formation of highly strained nanometer-order heterostructures of Si and Ge was demonstrated. Moreover, on atomic-order nitrided Si(100), Si epitaxial growth without substrate heating was also achieved, and it was confirmed that N atoms of about 0.8 atomic layer are confined within about a 3 nm-thick region under present measurement accuracy. These results open the way to realization of highly strained nanometer-order heterostructures with local doping control.