Abstract
Germanium (Ge) films on SiO2 with 〈100〉 texture deposited by a sputtering technique and the texture enhancement by a subsequent solid‐state thermal annealing are demonstrated for the first time. A 0.6‐μm‐thick Ge film on a surface oxidized Si wafer deposited by the rf sputtering technique at 600 °C produces a 〈100〉 texture, and the preferential orientation of the film is enhanced by a conventional grain growth process at 900 °C (approximately 0.95Tm, where Tm is the melting point in the Kelvin scale) for 1 h, while the crystallographic texture of the films has never changed at 650 °C (0.75Tm) annealing. The texture enhancement is interpreted by the existence of 〈100〉 oriented precursors and a simple coalescence and rearrangement model.