New crystalline structure for nanometer-sized Ge microcrystallites prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Crystallized Ge films have been produced in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system by the decomposition of H2-diluted GeH4 gas source while using the H2 plasma treatment. Structural analyses of the films using x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques revealed a new crystalline structure in the Ge microcrystallites with a diameter of about 5 nm, which is different from the normal diamond structure of crystalline Ge. This new nanometer crystalline structure has been explained to be a metastable nanometer-sized atomic configuration formed in the film deposition process.