Direct band-gap electroluminescence of strained n-doped Germanium diodes

Philippe Velha, Kevin Gallacher, Derek Dumas, Douglas J. Paul

University of Glasgow, School of Engineering, Rankine Buidling, Oakeld Avenue, G12 8LT, Glasgow, U.K. philippe.velha@glasgow.ac.uk

Maksym Myronov, David R. Leadley

University of Warwick, Department of Physics, Coventry, CV4 7AL, U.K.

Abstract: We report the fabrication and characterisation of an LED structures made of Ge-On-Si. The structures are circular mesa of strained n-doped Germanium etched down to the virtual layer of undoped Germanium on Silicon. The electroluminescence exhibit power level at 1.7 m many orders of magnitude of what was previously reported. We also show that there are 3 mechanisms of emission which can interpret some of the peculiarities encountered in other works. This work open the route for an integrated source of light on Silicon
2011 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 250.0250, 250.3140, 250.5230, 250.5960, 300.0300, 300.6230, 300.6470

1. Direct band-gap electroluminescence of strained n-doped Germanium diodes: a new way of getting an integrated light source Lately, Ge has regained interest in both electronics and photonics for its appealing intrinsic properties (high mobility, band edge at 1.6 m) and also by the progress made in processing and growth technology. Previous works [?, ?, 1, 2] demonstrated electroluminescence (EL) from p-i-n structure [2] or other congurations grown on top of a standard silicon wafer, which potentially opens the route towards an integrated Ge light source. Two key elements of the laser structure are, rst a high quality, heavily-doped n-Ge material and second the use of tensile strain to reduce the valley to L-valley energy which allows the Fermi level to be in the -valley. In this work, we the fabrication and the characterisation of electroluminescent structures. A 650 nm strain relaxed virtual substrate of undoped Ge was directly grown onto a 200 mm p -Si (001) wafer by an ASM Epsilon 2000E CVD tool (using the method from [5]). Then 300 nm of n-type phosphorus-doped Ge with ND 3 1019 cm3 was grown at 450 o C so it possesses a 0.25 % of tensile strain once cooled. Cylindrical mesas were dened by photolithography and then etched down 600 nm using an a uorine based chemistry in an ICP tool. The top contact electrode of aluminium was deposited on top of the n-doped Ge and the bottom electrode deposited on the undoped Ge around the mesa. The structure is covered with Si3 N4 and then a Via hole is etched to report the contact outside the structure. The electrodes were not annealed to get a Schottky diode. The nal device was wire bonded in order to connect the device to an external power supply. The spectrum (0.5 eV (2.5 m) and over 1 eV (1 m)) of the LEDs was taken using a FTIR system composed of a CaF beamsplitter and an extended InGaAs detector. The gure 1 shows a series of spectrum obtained for different current injection currents. From this series of measurement it is easy to recognise 3 different peaks which can be identied as 3 different mechanism of emission. First, all the spectrum exhibit a strong peak at 0.5 eV which is the black body emission of the sample due to the heating. This peak is present even when the current is switched off and a black body source can be used in order to measure the dependence of the peak with temperature. An heating element shows an increase and shift of this peak with respect with the temperature. A rst observation tell us that a large amount (in excess of 20 mW) of the emission is due to this mechanism. Second, there is the presence of a broad and low intensity peak around 0.66 eV which corresponds to the radiative recombination from the indirect band-gap of the Ge. Finally, at around 0.75 eV there is a peak that can be identied as the direct bandgap radiative recombination. In this case the linewidth is narrower and much more intense. In gure ?? is shown a detail of the indirect and direct band-gap recombination. In order to get a better t of the peak we subtracted the contribution of the black body contribution. In gure 2 we present typical L-I curves of an LED in both, continuous and pulsed regime. To measure the power we used a power meter set at a wavelength of 1.7 m (730 meV) placed directly above the LED. The power meter is sensitive only to average power thus the values reported for the pulsed regime are average values. From this measurements

Fig. 1. (a)Electroluminescence spectrum obtained from an LED of 300 m of diameter for different CW current excitation.(b)Details of the peaks of three spectrum without the black body contribution.

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Fig. 2. typical L-I curve of an LED in continuous and pulsed regime. The position of the peak of the direct band-gap transition is indicated as well

it is possible to see how each mechanism plays an important role in the emission of the Ge LED. In pulsed regime the portion of black body is drastically reduce and the direct transition is consequently more efcient. This indicates that the radiative emission is likely limited by Auger recombination due to the heating. Thanks to the strain enhancement, the bulk germanium has a recombination efciency better than the one of a standard indirect band gap material hence the better efciency for the direct band-gap emission. The quality of the material as much as the doping density and strain used in these devices are the key elements that enable such amount of powers. We believe that such device could play an important role in the development of integrated light sources on silicon and have many applications in systems where emitter above 1.6 m are needed like in health care monitoring. References 1. M. de Kersauson, R. Jakomin, M. El Kurdi, G. Beaudoin, N. Zerounian et al., J. Appl. Phys. 108, 023105 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3462400 2. Xiaochen Sun, Jifeng Liu, Lionel C. Kimerling, Jurgen Michel OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 34, No. 8 / April 15, 2009 3. Szu-Lin Cheng, Gary Shambat,2 Jesse Lu,2 Hyun-Yong Yu,2 Krishna Saraswat,2 Theodore I. Kamins,2 Jelena Vuckovic, Yoshio Nishi2, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 98, 211101 (2011) 4. Szu-Lin Cheng, Jesse Lu, Gary Shambat, Hyun-Yong Yu, Krishna Saraswat, Jelena Vuckovic, and Yoshio Nishi2, 8 June 2009 / Vol. 17, No. 12 / OPTICS EXPRESS 10019

5. V.A. Shah, A. Dobbie, M. Myronov and D.R. Leadley, Solid State Electron. 62, 189 (2011).