The kinetics of transformation in amorphous germanium alloy films

Abstract

The kinetics of the amorphous-to-crystalline transformation were studied in amorphous germanium (a-Ge) and its alloys with aluminium, silicon, indium, copper, iron, nickel, gallium and tin by using isochronal and isothermal annealing of the room temperature resistivity, differential thermal analysis and electron microscopy measurements. It was shown that the transformations in a-Ge and a-Ge alloy films are nucleation and growth controlled. The activation energy of 3.0 eV obtained for the amorphous-to-crystalline transition in a-Ge was found to decrease on alloying with metals, and the decrease depended on the nature of the alloying element.