TABLE OF CONTENTS The development of growth technologies to produce high-quality and high-purity crystals during the last century enabled the fabrication of electronic and optoelectronic devices down to the nanoscale region. High-performance devices can only be fabricated from high-quality materials that are grown under well-controlled conditions. This chapter is directed toward the discussion of semiconductor crystal growth using various techniques ranging from bulk crystal growth to the epitaxial growth of quantum dots. Bulk crystal growth techniques include liquid-encapsulated Czochralski (LEC), horizontal Bridgman (HB), liquid-encapsulated Kyropoulos (LEK), and vertical gradient freezing (VGF) methods. There are also many improved methods available for the growth of bulk semiconductor crystals. For example, magnetic LEC, direct synthesis LEC, pressure-controlled LEC, and thermal baffle LEC methods are all variations of the original LEC technique, but with improved growth conditions. Other bulk growth techniques include dynamic gradient freezing, horizontal gradient freezing, magnetic LEK, and vertical Bridgman methods. The widely used epitaxial growth techniques are molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE). The term epitaxy is of Greek origin and is composed of two words, epi (placed or resting on), and taxis (arrangement). Thus, epitaxy refers to the formation of single-crystal films on top of a substrate.
The growth techniques of bulk semiconductor crystals are designed to produce large-volume crystals under equilibrium conditions with almost no flexibility in the production of alloy composition. These techniques lack the ability to produce heterojunctions needed for advanced semiconductor devices. The ability of...
