Solid state dewetting of semiconductor thin films: From fundamental studies to photonic applications

¹ Institute of Photonic and Nanotechnology (IFN)- CNR, LNESS laboratory, Como, Italy
² Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
³ LENS and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
⁴ Istituto per la microelettronica e microsistemi-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IMM-CNR), Catania, Italy
⁵ Department of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
⁶ Aix Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IM2NP Marseille, France and Solnil, 95 Rue de la République, Marseille, France

^* Corresponding author: sonia.freddi@ifn.cnr.it

Published online: 31 October 2024

Abstract

Here we propose to exploit the natural instability of thin solid films, i.e. solid state dewetting, to form regular patterns of monocrystalline atomically smooth Si, Si1-xGex and Ge nanostructures that cannot be realized with conventional methods. Additionally, the solid-state dewetting dynamics is guided by pre-patterning the sample by a combination of electron-beam lithography and reactive-ion etching, obtaining precise control over number, size, shape, and relative position of the final structures. Methods and structures will be optimized towards their exploitation mainly in photonic devices application (e.g. anti-reflection coatings, colour-filters, random lasers, quantum emitters and photonic sensors).