X-Ray Absorption Studies of Ge Layers Buried in Silicon Crystal

Polarization-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to study the local microstructure of Ge layers buried in silicon. The layers with thickness from 6 to 20 monolayers of Ge were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrate and were covered by Si (20 nm). To investigate the morphology of grown structures, X-ray absorption near edge structure and extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis of the Ge K-edge was done. The performed qualitative analysis proves that X-ray absorption spectra are very sensitive to the local order in the formed structures and are sources of unique information about morphology of the buried Ge layers. Using these techniques we were able to observe the changes in atomic order around the Ge atoms in investigated buried layers and compare the formed atomic order with that in crystalline Ge. A substantial increase in intensity, broadening and chemical shift of the X-ray absorption near edge structure spectrum for 8 ML were observed. It can be related to the increase in density of electron states caused by increase in the localization of the states due to potential appearing at the Ge island boundaries and indicated the formation of quantum dots. The observed in-plane modulations of radial distribution and out-of-plane for different layers were discussed.