In Situ Phosphorus Doping of Germanium by APCVD

Germanium is increasingly being studied for application in advanced nanoelectronic devices, due to its high intrinsic carrier mobility. While broad knowledge and understanding of in-situ doping of Si is available, very little is known on in-situ doping of Ge. Phosphorus has been identified as one of the most promising n-type dopants for Ge, because of its high electrical activity. However, studies of the quality of ion-implanted P-doped Ge layers showed unsatisfactory behavior. A considerable difference between the levels of the electrical solubility and equilibrium solid solubility of P in Ge has been reported. The highest electrically active level of ionimplanted P in Ge reported to date is of 5-6×10 cm. The interest in in-situ doping of Ge was triggered by the possibility of increasing the electrically active levels obtained for n-type dopants at the same time as having better control over the shape of the dopant profile and its location. We present the first results on in-situ P doping of Ge by APCVD.