Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Defect-free germanium has been demonstrated in SiO2 trenches on silicon via aspect ratio trapping, whereby defects arising from lattice mismatch are trapped by laterally confining sidewalls.Results were achieved through a combination of conventional photolithography, reactive ion etching of SiO2, and selective growth of Ge as thin as 450 nm.It was revealed that facets, when formed early on in the growth process, play a dominant role in determining the configurations of threading dislocations in the films.This approach shows great promise for the integration of Ge and/or III-V materials, sufficiently large for key device applications, onto silicon substrates.