Nano Express
Low-temperature fabrication of layered self-organized Ge clusters by RF-sputtering
1 Physics Department, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
2 Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
3 LPS, Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, BP 1796, Fès, Morocco
4 Sincrotrone Trieste, 34012 Basovizza, Italy
5 ITN, Ion Beam Laboratory, EN10, 2686-953 Sacavém, Portugal
6 Nanostructured Materials Research Group, School of Materials, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M1 7HS, UK
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:341 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-341
Published: 14 April 2011Abstract
In this article, we present an investigation of (Ge + SiO2)/SiO2 multilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering and subsequently annealed at different temperatures. The structural properties were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, grazing incidence small angles X-ray scattering, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. We show a formation of self-assembled Ge clusters during the deposition at 250°C. The clusters are ordered in a three-dimensional lattice, and they have very small sizes (about 3 nm) and narrow size distribution. The crystallization of the clusters was achieved at annealing temperature of 700°C.
