Growth of preferred orientation Ge film using inductively coupled plasma-assisted DC magnetron sputtering at low temperature

•Ge was grown using inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-assisted DC sputtering.•We obtained randomly oriented Ge thin films using DC sputtering without ICP source.•We obtained preferred orientation Ge thin films using ICP-assisted DC sputtering.•We also obtained amorphous Ge thin films using ICP-assisted DC sputtering.•The optical band gaps of the deposited Ge films were estimated by Tauc's plots.

Growth of low-temperature metal-free crystallized Ge film was investigated using inductively coupled plasma-assisted DC magnetron sputtering. The films were deposited both without and with inductively coupled plasma. The films deposited by a conventional DC magnetron sputtering system had randomly oriented crystalline structures. However, the addition of inductively coupled plasma developed crystal phase from an amorphous to a preferred oriented crystalline with increasing sputtering power. The optical band gaps of the amorphous and crystalline phases were 0.96 eV and 0.7 eV, respectively.