Novel GeC epilayers on Si (001) substrates were grown by using a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with a vacuum arc plasma gun as a new-type C source for a first time. To improve crystallinity and obtain a higher substitutional C content x in the Ge
1-xC
x epilayers, dependence of the growth mode and C incorporation upon the supplied C fraction and growth temperature was investigated systematically by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses. Further, an effect of Ar
+ ion irradiation on substitutional C incorporation into the MBE-grown GeC /Si (001) epilayers was clarified. As the result, the maximum value of x= 2.9% was obtained in a singlecrystalline structure. From measuring the optical absorption spectra with FT-IR, it was found out that the Get
1-xC
x/Si (001) epilayers with 0≤x≤2.0% have an indirect transition-type band structure and a very large bandgap bowing parameter
b= 13.4 eV.
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