High hole mobility in Si0.17Ge0.83 channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

We report on effective hole mobility in SiGe-based metal-oxide-semiconducto r (MOS) field-effect transistors grown by low-energy plasma-enhanced chemic al vapor deposition. The heterostructure layer stack consists of a strained Si0.17Ge0.83 alloy channel on a thick compositionally-graded Si0.52Ge0.48 buffer. Structural assessment was done by high resolution x-ray diffraction . Maximum effective hole mobilities of 760 and 4400 cm(2)/Vs have been meas ured at 300 and 77 K, respectively. These values exceed the hole mobility i n a conventional Si p-MOS device by a factor of 4 and reach the mobility da ta of conventional Si n-MOS transistors. (C) 2000 American Institute of Phy sics. [S0003-6951(00)00426-5].