Germanium Oxide Removal by Citric Acid and Thiol Passivation from Citric Acid-Terminated Ge(100)

Many applications of germanium (Ge) are underpinned by effective oxide removal and surface passivation. This important surface treatment step often requires H–X (X = Cl, Br, I) or HF etchants. Here, we show that aqueous citric acid solutions are effective in the removal of GeOx. The stability of cit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLangmuir Vol. 30; no. 47; pp. 14123 - 14127
Main Authors Collins, Gillian, Aureau, Damien, Holmes, Justin D, Etcheberry, Arnaud, O’Dwyer, Colm
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Chemical Society 02.12.2014
Subjects
Citric Acid - chemistry
Germanium - chemistry
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Summary:Many applications of germanium (Ge) are underpinned by effective oxide removal and surface passivation. This important surface treatment step often requires H–X (X = Cl, Br, I) or HF etchants. Here, we show that aqueous citric acid solutions are effective in the removal of GeOx. The stability of citric acid-treated Ge(100) is compared to HF and HCl treated surfaces and analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Further Ge surface passivation was investigated by thiolation using alkane monothiols and dithiols. The organic passivation layers show good stability with no oxide regrowth observed after 3 days of ambient exposure.
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ISSN:0743-7463
1520-5827
DOI:10.1021/la503819z