Carbon (C) and Silicon Germanium (SiGe) work like a magic sauce. At least in small concentrations, they make everything taste better. It is remarkable enough that SiGe, a new material, and the heterobipolar transistor, a new device, appear on the brink of impacting the exploding wireless market. The addition of C to SiGe, albeit in small concentrations, looks to have breakthrough potential. Here, at last, is proof that materials science can put a rocket booster on the silicon-mind, the silicon transistor. Scientific excitement arises, as always, from the new possibilities a multicomponent materials system offers. Bandgaps can be changed, strains can be tuned, and properties can be tailored. This is catnip to the materials scientist. The wide array of techniques applied here to the SiGeC system bear testimony to the ingenious approaches now available for mastering the complexities of new materials

Despite the vast knowledge accumulated on silicon, germanium, and their alloys, these materials still demand research, eminently in view of the improvement of knowledge on silicon-germanium alloys and the potentialities of silicon as a substrate for high-efficiency solar cells and for compound semiconductors and the ongoing development of nanodevic

This research resulted the growth on the growth of this new semiconductor alloys, silicon-germanium carbon, by the technique of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The alloys have been characterized by several techniques including Rutherford backscattering spectronietry (RBS) for composition, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) for optical absorption. The Si%%%%%Ge%C% alloys were successfully grown using all solid sources for the Si, Ge and C. Substrates were 75 mm diameter (100) - oriented Si wafers, and alloy layer thicknesses ranged from 10 nm to 3 %m.

The industrial relevance of SiGe has increased dramatically in the last few years with the manufacture of heterojunction bipolar circuits for the commercial wireless and datacomms markets by IBM and TEMIC, with over 20 companies planning manufacture in the near future. Major high technology companies see the development and use of SiGe as an important part of their strategy, so that there is a strong impetus to improve its characterization and exploitation. This liberally illustrated and fully indexed volume distils in a homogeneous, structured way the expertise of some 40 invited authors to comprehensively review the whole range of properties as well as SiGe: C, self-assembled nanostructures, quantum effects and device trends. The book contains 75% more text than Prof. Kasper's earlier book Properties of strained and relaxed SiGe (INSPEC, IEE, 1995), thoroughly updates its content and adds many new topics.

Nanostructured silicon-germanium (SiGe) opens up the prospects of novel and enhanced electronic device performance, especially for semiconductor devices. Silicon-germanium (SiGe) nanostructures reviews the materials science of nanostructures and their properties and applications in different electronic devices. The introductory part one covers the structural properties of SiGe nanostructures, with a further chapter discussing electronic band structures of SiGe alloys. Part two concentrates on the formation of SiGe nanostructures, with chapters on different methods of crystal growth such as molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapour deposition. This part also includes chapters covering strain engineering and modelling. Part three covers the material properties of SiGe nanostructures, including chapters on such topics as strain-induced defects, transport properties and microcavities and quantum cascade laser structures. In Part four, devices utilising SiGe alloys are discussed. Chapters cover ultra large scale integrated applications, MOSFETs and the use of SiGe in different types of transistors and optical devices. With its distinguished editors and team of international contributors, Silicon-germanium (SiGe) nanostructures is a standard reference for researchers focusing on semiconductor devices and materials in industry and academia, particularly those interested in nanostructures. Reviews the materials science of nanostructures and their properties and applications in different electronic devices Assesses the structural properties of SiGe nanostructures, discussing electronic band structures of SiGe alloys Explores the formation of SiGe nanostructuresfeaturing different methods of crystal growth such as molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapour deposition