A fundamental question in the silicon- germanium heterostructure field is the possibility of strong electrically-pumped light emission for light-emitting devices. Based on promising initial results, we propose to use the Rapid Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition (RTCVD) growth technique to develop novel quantum material structures to increase the light-emission intensities in the silicon- germanium system. This RTCVD technique at Princeton has already demonstrated the first well-resolved bandedge light-emission from strained Si1-xGex quantum wells and superlattices, and also the first 1.3-um room- temperature electro-luminescence (LED's) in the Si1-xGex system. It is proposed to increase the quantum efficiencies of these initial results by examining the properties of carriers in ultra- thin quantum wells (< = 1 nm) and monolayer-scale superlattices grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This work will focus on the growth and opto-electronic characterization of such structures, which have not previously been grown by CVD. Such growth will require an understanding of the initial stages of heteroepitaxy in column IV CVD, which will be studied through the use of Auger electron spectroscopy in the rapid thermal CVD reactor at Princeton. The ultimate goal will be a self-limiting atomic layer epitaxy process.
