Low-temperature growth of strained germanium quantum wells for high mobility applications

The extremely high hole mobilities attainable in strained germanium quantum wells (QW) provide a unique pathway to develop novel devices in the emerging field of quantum electronics. A major challenge associated with the growth of Ge QW structures using the industrial standard reduced-pressure chemical vapor deposition (RP-CVD) technique is the incorporation of unintentional impurities in the growing film. We will show that a compromise exists between the growth conditions that minimize the various impurities (mainly O and Si) and the abruptness of the QW. The purity of the incoming gas plays a central role in this compromise and will be discussed.