Diffusion of silicon in crystalline germanium

We report the determination of the diffusion coefficient of Si in crystalline Ge over the temperature range of 550 to 900 C. A molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown buried Si layer in an epitaxial Ge layer on a crystalline Ge substrate was used as the source for the diffusion experiments. For samples annealed at temperatures above 700 C, a 50 nm thick SiO{sub 2} cap layer was deposited to prevent decomposition of the Ge surface. We found the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient to be described by a single activation energy (3.32 eV) and pre-factor (38 cm{sup 2}/s) over the entire temperature range studied. The diffusion of the isovalent Si in Ge is slower than Ge self-diffusion over the full temperature range and reveals an activation enthalpy which is higher than that of self-diffusion. This points to a reduced interaction potential between the Si atom and the native defect mediating the diffusion process. For Si, which is smaller in size than the Ge self-atom, a reduced interaction is expected for a Si-vacancy (Si-V{sub Ge}) pair. Therefore we conclude that Si diffuses in Ge via the vacancy mechanism