Solid-State Dewetting Dynamics of Amorphous Ge Thin Films on Silicon Dioxide Substrates
Dimosthenis Toliopoulos, Alexey Fedorov, Sergio Bietti, Monica Bollani, Emiliano Bonera, Andrea Ballabio, Giovanni Isella, Mohammed Bouabdellaoui, Marco Abbarchi, Shiro Tsukamoto, S. Sanguinetti
Abstract
/Si (001). A detailed insight of the dewetting is obtained by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction and ex situ scanning electron microscopy. These characterizations show that the amorphous Ge films dewet into Ge crystalline nano-islands with dynamics dominated by crystallization of the amorphous material into crystalline nano-seeds and material transport at Ge islands. Surface energy minimization determines the dewetting process of crystalline Ge and controls the final stages of the process. At very high temperatures, coarsening of the island size distribution is observed.