Liquid-Sn-driven lateral growth of poly-GeSn on insulator assisted by surface oxide layer

Effects of surface oxide layers on liquid-Sn-driven GeSn crystallization on insulators at various temperatures (<475 °C) are investigated. An amorphous Ge in neighborhood of patterned-Sn (<3.5 μm) becomes to polycrystalline Ge1−xSnx (x ≈ 0.025 − 0.14) after annealing at 150–475 °C, which is independent of the surface oxide thickness. Interestingly, a 50-μm-length lateral growth of polycrystalline Ge0.99Sn0.01 layers achieved by combination of thickening of the surface-oxide treated by NH4OH and annealing above melting temperature of Sn (231.9 °C). The growth length is 15 times longer than without the treatment. The advanced process promises to achieve group-IV-based optic and electronic devices on flexible substrates and Si platforms.