Scalable and Fast Epitaxy of High Quality, Single Crystal ZnSe Substrates

In Phase I we developed a novel growth process demonstration for production of large area single crystal (100) ZnSe.  We demonstrated growth of 50 mm and nearly 1 cm thick ZnSe wafers with a 2x improvement in crystal quality over commercial single crystal material. This was done on GaAs and other materials. Additionally, we demonstrated ZnSe single crystal growth approaching 2 mm in thickness on 10x10 mm substrates with a 3x improvement in crystal quality over comparable commercial single crystal ZnSe substrates. Significant progress was also made using (100) GaAs substrates with regards to preserving material integrity and growth initiation using our high growth rate growth process and is highly desirable for bulk growth. Our collaboration will be valuable in prototyping other materials, where we address all points in the research and development pipeline, from laboratory experiments to simulation to scale up to eventual commercialization. This will be a boon to both developed (but offshored) and nascent optoelectronic crystals. There is renewed and consequential interest in these materials for high power optics and lasing.In Phase II we will continue to utilize the Team’s synergy in facilities and expertise, but will also adopt a “divide and conquer” approach by continuing process development at our partner’s facility and establishing production scale operations at Mainstream Engineering. We will continue development by rapidly mapping out the entirety of the growth process parameter space, and improve upon our system design to improve in-situ feedback control. By the end of Phase II, all technology transfer to Mainstream will be complete, such that our facilities will be positioned for immediate pilot scale production and distribution of high quality (100) single crystal ZnSe to DoD customers with wafer sizes up to 100 mm and over 1 mm thick.