Antimony (Sb) heavily-doped germanium (Ge)-on-silicon (Si) epitaxial films are investigated as mid-infrared (MIR) plasmonic materials. Structural, electrical, and optical properties have been improved by proper choice of dopant species (i.e., Sb) and optimization of the growth parameters (i.e., Sb flux and substrate temperature). The increased electron conductivity can be attributed to the elevated carrier concentration (1.5 × 1020 cm-3) and carrier mobility (224 cm2 V-1 s-1) in the Sb-doped Ge epilayers. The measured MIR reflectivities of the Sb-doped Ge films show free-carrier-dependent properties, which leads to tunable real and imaginary parts of permittivities. Localized surface plasmon polaritons of the bowtie antennas fabricated from the Sb-doped Ge films are demonstrated. The fabricated antennas can provide signal enhancement for the molecular vibrational spectroscopy when these vibrational lines are spectrally in proximity to the localized plasmon resonance. These CMOS-compatible Sb-doped Ge epilayers offer a platform to study the interaction of MIR plasmon with nanostructures on chips.
Keywords: antimony-doped germanium; high-plasma-frequency; low loss; mid-infrared; plasmonics.