ABSTRACT
The growth of thin layers of compound semiconducting materials by the co-pyrolysis of various combinations of organometallic compounds and hydrides, known generically as metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), has assumed a great deal of technological importance in the fabrication of a number of opto-electronic and high speed electronic devices. The initial demonstration of compound semiconductor film growth was first reported in 1968 and was initially directed toward becoming a compound semiconductor equivalent of “Silicon on Sapphire” growth technology Since then, both commercial and scientific interest has been largely directed toward epitaxial growth on semiconductor rather than insulator substrates. State of the art performance has been demonstrated for a number of categories of devices, including lasers,![3] PIN photodetectors,^ solar cells,!^ phototransistors,! ^photocathodes,!^ field effect transistors,^ and modula tion doped field effect transistors The efficient operation of these devices requires the grown films to have a number of excellent materials properties, including purity, high luminescence efficiency, and/or abrupt interfaces. In
addition, this technique has been used to deposit virtually all III-V and IIVI semiconducting compounds and alloys in support o f materials studies. The III-V materials that are lattice matched to GaAs (i.e., AlGaAs, InGaAlP) and InP (i.e., InGaAsP) have been the most extensively studied due to their technological importance for lasers, light emitting diodes, and photodetec tors in the visible and infrared wavelengths. The II-VI materials HgCdTe!10! and ZnSSet1 'IP2! have also been studied for far-infrared detectors and blue visible emitters, respectively. Finally, improved equipment and process understanding over the past several years has led to demonstrations of excellent materials uniformity across 50 mm, 75 mm, and 100 mm wafers.
