Epitaxial growth at high rates with LEPECVD

We discuss a new method for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, call ed low energy plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (LEPECVD), applied to the epitaxial growth of Si and SiGe heterostructures. Growth rates up to 5 nm/s become possible at substrate temperatures below 600 degrees C, by u tilizing very intense but low energy plasmas to decompose the reactive gase s, SiH4 and GeH4, and by supplying non-thermal energy to enhance the surfac e kinetics. We have applied LEPECVD to the synthesis of step-graded SiGe bu ffer layers, and studied them by scanning force microscopy and X-ray recipr ocal space mapping. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.