Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy: Features, Problems, New Approaches

Abstract

Modern compound semiconductor devices are usually fabricated in one or more layers of single-crystal material, which are epitaxially grown on a crystalline substrate. Since most of these semiconductors decompose into their constituent components at high temperature, epitaxial growth in its simplest form can be accomplished by transporting individual components to a heated substrate, where they react to form the compound semiconductor. This is the basis of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), where the process is carried out in an ultrahigh vacuum environment.Growth of these materials in an atmospheric (or reduced pressure) environment is highly advantageous from a commercial point of view. However, this presents a problem, since one of the components usually has a very low vapor pressure. For III-V compounds such as GaAs, AlAs, InAs, and InP, this is the column III component. Consequently, a technique must be provided to transport these elements by means of volatile compounds. This process is known as chemical vapor epitaxy, with halogenic compounds often used as transport agents. One example of this approach is the growth of GaAs from GaCl and AsCl3. During growth, the AsCl3 is made to prereact with gallium to form volatile GaCl, which is stable at elevated temperatures and can be transported to the substrate. High quality GaAs can be made by this process, and it is widely used for making a number of GaAs devices.