Boron- and phosphorus-doped silicon germanium alloy nanocrystals—Nonthermal plasma synthesis and gas-phase thin film deposition

Alloyed silicon-germanium (SiGe) nanostructures are the topic of renewed research due to applications in modern optoelectronics and high-temperature thermoelectric materials. However, common techniques for producing nanostructured SiGe focus on bulk processing; therefore little is known of the physical properties of SiGe nanocrystals (NCs) synthesized from molecular precursors. In this letter, we synthesize and deposit thin films of doped SiGe NCs using a single, flow-through nonthermal plasma reactor and inertial impaction. Using x-ray and vibrational analysis, we show that the SiGe NC structure appears truly alloyed for Si1−xGex for 0.16 < x < 0.24, and quantify the atomic dopant incorporation within the SiGe NC films.