Formation of germanium (111) on graphene on insulator by rapid melting growth for novel germanium-on-insulator structure

We demonstrate the crystallization of the microstrips of electrodeposited amorphous germanium (Ge) on graphene on insulator by rapid melting growth for the first time. Growth of single-crystalline Ge microstrips with (111) orientation was confirmed. The high level of compressive strain was found to be resulted from the intermixing of C atoms from multilayer graphene (MLG) and Ge. Probably the introduction of local C atom into Ge film enhances nucleation of Ge on MLG, which results in (111)-oriented Ge nuclei. Subsequent lateral growth enables crystallization of Ge with (111) orientation on the entire microstrip. The results also indicate that graphene is very useful to suppress the spontaneous nucleation in the melting Ge films and the lattice rotation or misorientation. This novel and innovative technique provides a breakthrough towards the realization of high quality Ge-on-insulator structures to facilitate the next-generation ultra-large-scale integrated circuits (ULSIs) with multifunctionalities.