Valved Group III Effusion Cell Development for MBE

Advanced valved Group III elemental effusion cells for precise flux control in Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) systems will be developed and commercialized in the proposed project. The sources are designed to be retrofittable to commercial MBE systems and compatible with flux (feedback) controlling instrumentation. The cell design based upon adaptation of our existing (and patented) Vapor Transport Epitaxy (VTE) technology. The principles of VTE, which uses valving to control fluxes and a hot manifold to control flux distribution, have been successfully applied to Ga, Al, In, Zn, Cd, Te, and Se to form multi-material systems such as InGaAs, AlGaAs, ZnSeTe and CdTe. The development of the proposed single element sources is a logical extension of this existing VTE technology. In phase I, we will demonstrate precise flux control both temporally and spatially using a prototype valved effusion cell, which will be delivered to the contractor. In Phase II , with our collaborators, we will develop commercial versions of the prototype cell for a variety of group III elements. The refined cells will be evaluated in operational MBE systems. We will also evaluate and package, as appropriate, other advanced designs in Phase II. The continued direct marketing and sales of our valved group III effusion cells will comprise the Phase III effort.