Kinetic Energy Enhanced Neutral Beam Epitaxy

该奖项由特别项目办公室颁发，以支持科罗拉多大学博尔德分校斯蒂芬·莱昂内教授的研究。本工作的目的是研究在低温下电子材料的动能增强中性束外延的基本方面。通过脉冲激光汽化透明基底上的电子束沉积薄膜，并在1-10 eV范围内选择中性原子的速度，可以产生动能增强的中性原子。要研究的系统包括硅（100）上的钴、铁、铂、钨、镍、钯、钛和钼原子、硅化钴和硅/锗的异质外延。薄膜的生长将通过低能电子衍射、俄歇能谱和扫描电子显微镜进行监测。使用He+和Ne+的飞行时间离子散射光谱将被开发，以确定薄膜的晶格间距作为薄膜厚度和生长机制的函数。本研究将探讨硅衬底上金属薄膜沉积的基本原理，这对半导体互连具有重要意义。锗/硅体系的异质外延研究诱导晶格应变，为控制光电器件的有效带隙结构提供了机会。

This award is made in the Office of Special Projects in support of the research of Professor Stephen Leone at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The goal of the work is to study fundamental aspects of kinetic energy enhanced neutral beam epitaxy of electronic materials at low substrate temperatures. Kinetic energy enhanced neutral atoms will be produced by pulsed laser vaporization of electron beam-deposited thin films of transparent substrates followed by velocity selection of the neutral atoms in the 1-10 eV range. Systems to be studied include cobalt, iron, platinum, tungsten, nickel, palladium, titanium and molybdenum atoms on silicon (100), cobalt silicide, and the heteroepitaxy of silicon/germanium. Film growth will be monitored by low energy electron diffraction, Auger spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Time of flight ion scattering spectroscopy using He+ and Ne+ will be developed to determine lattice spacings of the films as a function of film thickness and growth mechanism. This research will address the fundamentals of metal film deposition on silicon substrates which are of fundamental importance to interconnects on semiconductors. Heteroepitaxy studies of the germanium/silicon system induces lattice-strain which offers the opportunity to control the effective bandgap structure of optoelectronic devices.