Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Book excerpt: This first-ever monograph on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) gives a comprehensive presentation of recent developments in MBE, as applied to crystallization of thin films and device structures of different semiconductor materials. MBE is a high-vacuum technology characterized by relatively low growth temperature, ability to cease or initiate growth abruptly, smoothing of grown surfaces and interfaces on an atomic scale, and the unique facility for in situ analysis of the structural parameters of the growing film. The excellent exploitation parameters of such MBE-produced devices as quantum-well lasers, high electron mobility transistors, and superlattice avalanche photodiodes have caused this technology to be intensively developed. The main text of the book is divided into three parts. The first presents and discusses the more important problems concerning MBE equipment. The second discusses the physico-chemical aspects of the crystallization processes of different materials (mainly semiconductors) and device structures. The third part describes the characterization methods which link the physical properties of the grown film or structures with the technological parameters of the crystallization procedure. Latest achievements in the field are emphasized, such as solid source MBE, including silicon MBE, gas source MBE, especially metalorganic MBE, phase-locked epitaxy and atomic-layer epitaxy, photoassisted molecular layer epitaxy and migration enhanced epitaxy.