Abstract

The photon-controlled nucleation and growth of amorphous hydrogenated germanium (a-Ge:H) was investigated for different silicon substrate surfaces. The 6.4 eV photons of a 193 nm ArF laser initiated the deposition process by photolyzing digermane in the gas phase (parallel laser beam surface configuration). The growth process was monitored in situ by real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) to obtain the evolution of the optical functions and to get information on the microstructure and nucleation process.

© 1997 Optical Society of America