Growth and photoluminescence of high quality SiGeC random alloys on silicon substrates

We report chemical vapor deposition growth of SiGeC layers on 〈100〉 Si substrates. At the growth temperature of 550 °C, the C concentration as high as 2% can be incorporated into SiGe (Ge content ∼ 25%) to form single crystalline random alloys by using low flow of methylsilane (0.25 sccm) as a C precursor added in a dichlorosilane and germane mixture. For intermediate methylsilane flow (0.5 sccm – 1.5 sccm), the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) absorption spectra indicate the growth of amorphous layers. For the layers with high flow of methylsilane (12 sccm), there are silicon-carbide-like peaks in the FTIR spectra, indicating silicon carbide precipitation. The films were also characterized by x-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy to confirm crystallinity and constituent fractions. The defect-free band-edge photoluminescence at both 30 K and 77 K was observed in Si/SiGeC/Si quantum wells, even at power densities as low as 0.5 W/ cm2 and 1 W/cm2, respectively. Deep photoluminescence around 0.8 eV and luminescence due to D3 dislocations at 0.94 eV were not observed under any excitation conditions.