Epitaxial CeO<inf>2</inf> on silicon substrates and the potential of Si/CeO<inf>2</inf>/Si for SOI structures

Abstract

CeO2 is nearly lattice matched to Si and has the CaF2 cubic structure thus it offers the potential for the epitaxial growth of an insulating film on Si. Laser ablation of a CeO2 target in an ultra high vacuum system was used for the deposition of single crystal CeO2. The effect of post growth thermal and rapid thermal annealing in O2, N2 and Ar atmosphere was found to have pronounced effects on the electrical properties measured by C-V and the optical properties measured by photoluminescence. We report on our initial results for the growth of epitaxial Si on the deposited CeO2 using low pressure CVD. Both RHEED and TEM studies showed that single crystal epitaxial Si was deposited on CeO2. The details of the Si deposition on CeO2 films for potential of SOI (silicon on insulator) structures will be discussed.