Early-stage growth of GeTe on Si(111)-Sb

Boris Croes (1) , Fabien Cheynis (1) , Yannick Fagot-Revurat (2) , Pierre Müller (1) , Stefano Curiotto (1) , Frédéric Leroy (1)

1 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
2 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour

The advent of germanium telluride as a promising ferroelectric Rashba semiconductor for spintronic applications requires the growth of nanometer-thick films of high crystalline quality. In this study, we have elucidated the initial growth stages of GeTe on Si(111)-Sb by scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diraction. We demonstrate the presence of an initial 0.35 nm-thick GeTe layer followed by the 2D growth of GeTe via Frank-Read sources of atomic steps. As shown by core level spectroscopy, Sb is acting as a surfactant during growth up to a 5 nm thick film. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and low energy electron microscopy evidence that numerous mirror domains and in-plane misorientations appear early in the growth process and are gradually buried at the film/substrate interface. The use of a miscut Si substrate close to Si(111) allows suppressing these defects since the early beginning of growth.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Boris Croes, Fabien Cheynis, Yannick Fagot-Revurat, Pierre Müller, Stefano Curiotto, et al.. Early-stage growth of GeTe on Si(111)-Sb. Physical Review Materials, 2023, 7 (1), pp.014409. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.7.014409⟩. ⟨hal-04184850⟩