Smart Linear Motion Oven (LIMO) for Precision Group III Beam Flux Control in MBE

Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) is a key fabrication technology for high performance III-V and other semiconductor devices of importance to many DoD and commercial applications. A variable group III element source flux would provide agile vertical layer composition control required for sophisticated device fabrication. One recent source concept, Linear Motion Oven or LIMO, appears especially promising for this application. It has been demonstrated to achieve fast large flux variation and flux transient reduction, thereby significantly improving the layer composition control. We propose to incorporate flux sensor ion the lIMO design so that the flux can be accurately measured and adjusted in real time. Long term cell drift may also be corrected. We will build a prototype Smart LIMO based on modeling results, evaluate its performance, and perform actual device fabrication to validate its utility. Such a source would enable higher quality electronic and photonic devices to be fabricated for DoD and commercial applications.