Abstract
Modulation doped heterostructures consisting of a strained Ge (sGe) quantum well on a Si0.2Ge0.8 virtual substrate have been used to study enhancement of the transport properties of holes in the sGe channel due to the effective reduction of impurity scattering by placing the doping layer away from the channel. Electrical and structural analysis was performed for sGe heterostructures produced with a range of growth parameters. The highest hole mobility was 1.34×106 cm2/Vs at 0.5 K for a sGe quantum well in a ‘normal’ structure (i.e. doped above the channel) at a sheet density of 2.9×1011 cm-2, which is the largest hole mobility reported in Ge to date. ‘Inverted’ structures (doping layer under the channel) were also studied for different sample parameters such as channel thickness, spacer thickness, doping and different temperature growth, with a hole mobility as high as 5.08×105 cm2/Vs at a sheet density of 5.14×1011 cm-2 at 90 mK. Simulations of the scattering limited mobility for inverted and normal structures were performed and showed that at low sheet density background impurity scattering limits the low temperature hole mobility. However, as the sheet density increases interface roughness scattering becomes the mobility limiting process, especially in the case of inverted structures where the resistivity and mobility anisotropy is more pronounced. Magnetotransport measurements revealed the lowest reported effective mass for holes in Ge of 0.063±0.001 m0 for the normal structure and 0.07±0.002 m0 & 0.063±0.003 m0 for two inverted structures, and highest Dingle factors of α=78 and 33 for the normal and inverted structures, respectively. The low level of background impurities, high structural quality, and pure Ge channel revealed by structure characterisation are believed to be responsible for these exceptionally high values of mobility.