Pulsed Low-energy Ion-beam Induced Nucleation and Growth of Ge Nanocrystals on SiO2

Pulsed low-energy (200 eV) ion-beam-induced nucleation during Ge deposition on thin SiO2 film was used to form dense homogeneous arrays of Ge nanocrystals. The ion-beam action is shown to stimulate the nucleation of Ge nanocrystals when being applied after thin Ge layer deposition. Temperature and flux variation was used to optimize the nanocrystal size and array density required for memory device. Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation shows that ion impacts open an additional channel of atom displacement from a nanocrystal onto SiO2 surface. This results both in decrease of the average nanocrystal size and in increase of nanocrystal density.