The epitaxial growth of sputtered silicon layers on differently oriented substrates at low temperature – An electron microscopic study

We investigated epitaxial silicon films deposited on differently oriented substrates by pulsed magnetron sputtering at temperatures of 500–550 °C. Our scanning and transmission electron microscopic as well as electron backscattering investigations show that epitaxial films grow not only on (1 0 0)-oriented substrates, but also on (2 1 0)-, (4 1 1)- and (3 1 1)-oriented ones. A change to the (1 0 0) orientation is found for the growth on (1 1 1)- , (3 2 1)- and close to (1 1 0)-oriented substrates. For these orientations transmission electron microscopic investigations show stacking faults, microtwins and small amorphous inclusions in a region starting at the substrate–film interface up to thicknesses of 150–200 nm. With increasing film thickness above 200 nm the crystalline perfection of the epitaxial layers improves.