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Germanium-tin films with rather high Sn content (28.04% and 29.61%) are deposited directly on Si (100) and Si (111) substrates by magnetron sputtering. The mechanism of the effect of rapid thermal annealing on the Sn surface segregation of Ge1 −x Sn x films is investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The x-ray diffraction (XRD) is also performed to determine the crystallinities of the Ge1−x Sn x films. The experimental results indicate that root mean square (RMS) values of the annealed samples are comparatively small and have no noticeable changes for the as-grown sample when annealing temperature is below 400 °C. The diameter of the Sn three-dimensional (3D) island becomes larger than that of an as-grown sample when the annealing temperature is 700 °C. In addition, the Sn surface composition decreases when annealing temperature ranges from 400 °C to 700 °C. However, Sn bulk compositions in samples A and B are kept almost unchanged when the annealing temperature is below 600 °C. The present investigation demonstrates that the crystallinity of Ge1−x Sn x /Si (111) has no obvious advantage over that of Ge1−x Sn x /Si (100) and the selection of Si (111) substrate is an effective method to improve the surface morphologies of Ge1−x Sn x films. We also find that more severe Sn surface segregation occurs in the Ge1−x Sn x /Si (111) sample during annealing than in the Ge1−x Sn x /Si (100) sample.

The analysis of threading dislocation density (TDD) in Ge-on-Si layer is critical for developing lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), photodetectors (PDs), modulators, waveguides, metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), and also the integration of Si-based monolithic photonics. The TDD of Ge epitaxial layer is analyzed by etching or transmission electron microscope (TEM). However, high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) rocking curve provides an optional method to analyze the TDD in Ge layer. The theory model of TDD measurement from rocking curves was first used in zinc-blende semiconductors. In this paper, this method is extended to the case of strained Ge-on-Si layers. The HR-XRD scan is measured and Ge (004) single crystal rocking curve is utilized to calculate the TDD in strained Ge epitaxial layer. The rocking curve full width at half maximum (FWHM) broadening by incident beam divergence of the instrument, crystal size, and curvature of the crystal specimen is subtracted. The TDDs of samples A and B are calculated to be 1.41 × 108 cm−2 and 6.47 × 108 cm−2, respectively. In addition, we believe the TDDs calculated by this method to be the averaged dislocation density in the Ge epitaxial layer.