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The epitaxial growth of Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on Si(111) substrates is demonstrated. A 3 μm thick reverse, double-step virtual substrate with a final composition of Si0.10Ge0.90 has been employed. High resolution XRD, TEM, AFM and defect etching analysis has been used for the study of the structural properties of the buffer and of the QWs. The QW stack is characterized by a threading dislocation density of about 3×107cm-2 and an interdiffusion layer at the well/barrier interface of 2.1 nm. The quantum confined energy levels of this system have been calculated using the k∙p and effective mass approximation methods. The Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 MQWs have been characterized through absorption and photoluminescence measurements. The optical spectra have been compared with those of Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 QWs grown on Si(001) through a thick graded virtual substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility to reduce the thickness of the SiGe virtual substrate, required for the integration of Ge heterostructures on Si, without heavily affecting the crystal quality is becoming fundamental in several applications. In this work, we present 1 μm thick Si1-xGex buffers (with x>0.7) having different designs which could be suitable for applications requiring a thin virtual substrate. The rationale is to reduce the lattice mismatch at the interface with the Si substrate by introducing composition steps and/or partial grading. The relatively low growth temperature (475 °C) makes this approach appealing for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor integration. For all the investigated designs, a reduction of the threading dislocation density compared to constant composition Si1-xGex layers was observed. The best buffer in terms of defects reduction was used as a virtual substrate for the deposition of a Ge/SiGe multiple quantum well structure. Room temperature optical absorption and photoluminescence analysis performed on nominally identical quantum wells grown on both a thick graded virtual substrate and the selected thin buffer demonstrates a comparable optical quality, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed experimental study of the photoluminescence decay of direct Γ-Γ and indirect L-Γ transitions in compressively strained Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 type I multiple quantum wells. The lifetime of the fundamental L-Γ indirect-gap related transition is in the 6 to 13 ns range at the lattice temperature of 14 K. These values are just one order of magnitude higher than those typical of type-I direct gap III-V quantum wells and are significantly shorter than those characteristic of type-II indirect gap SiGe/Si quantum wells. The measured decay times show a clear dependence on the quantum well width and lattice temperature. The decay of the Γ-Γ direct-gap related transition is dominated by the ultrafast electron scattering from Γ-type to L-type states of the conduction band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intricate relaxation dynamics in compressively strained Ge quantum wells with Ge-rich SiGe barriers is investigated systematically for various excitation conditions. Evidence of efficient ultrafast intersubband relaxation in competition with the intrasubband electron cooling is found in continuous wave photoluminescence spectra measured with different excitation wavelengths. These findings are corroborated by time-resolved pump-probe absorption measurements yielding an intersubband relaxation time in the range of 100 fs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoluminescence (PL) of a strain-compensated Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structure was studied above room temperature, in the range of 300-440 K. Both direct and indirect radiative recombination PL features were observed. The relative intensity of direct to indirect recombination markedly increases with the increase of temperature. The enhancement of PL from direct recombination above RT has been attributed to the thermal excitation of carriers from L-type to Γ-type confined states. This extends the potential applicability of Ge/SiGe MQW as light emitters on a Si-based platform and is favorable for applications in metal-oxide-semiconductor integrated circuits which normally operate above RT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the observation of room temperature direct band gap photoluminescence in compressively strained-Ge multiple quantum wells with Ge-rich SiGe barriers. A detailed experimental study of the temperature dependence of the photoluminescence is carried out from 5 K up to room temperature. We find that the direct gap photoluminescence at room temperature is due to the thermal excitation of carriers from L-type to Γ-type confined states. Room temperature photoluminescence shows that Ge/SiGe multiple quantum wells are promising candidates for efficient light emitting devices monolithically integrated on Si. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a dephasing time analysis of the excitonic resonances in Ge/SiGe quantum wells for various lattice temperatures by coherent oscillation spectroscopy (COS). The results are compared to the linewidths of the excitonic resonances determined from linear absorption measurements. Additionally, COS is applied to different samples with varying linewidth, identifying one sample with a dominating homogeneously broadened 1s excitonic resonance down to 7 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]