ANALYSIS OF REACTOR DESIGN ON INTERFACE ABRUPTNESS IN EPITAXIAL LAYERS GROWN BY ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION

THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN SBIR PROJECT TO STUDY THE EFFECTS ON LAYER INTERFACE ABRUPTNESS OF OMCVD REACTOR DESIGN. THREE DIFFERENT VERTICLE REACTOR CONFIGURATIONS WILL BE INVESTIGATED: THE PANCAKE-SHAPED SUSCEPTOR, THE BARREL-SHAPED SUSCEPTOR, AND THE DUAL SUSCEPTOR. ALTHOUGH ALL THREE CONFIGURATIONS ARE VERTICAL REACTORS, THE GAS DYNAMICS AND THERMAL PROFILES IN ALL THREE ARE DIFFERENT. THESE DIFFERENCES ARE EXPECTED TO LEAD TO VASTLY DIFFERENT SURFACE CONDITIONS AND INTERFACE FORMATION. THIS STUDY WILLFOCUS ON THE GENERATION OF A DATA BASE AND UNDERSTANDING OF III-V HETEROSTRUCTURES AND INTERFACES, ESPECIALLY IN THE GAAS/A1GAAS SYSTEM. A PRELIMINARY MODEL TO DESCRIBE INTERFACE FORMATION FOR THE DIFFERENT REACTORS OF INTEREST WILL BE DEVELOPED. THE COMPLETION OF PHASE 1 WILL IDENTIFY GROWTH EXPERIMENTS THAT NEED TO BE CARRIED OUT IN ORDER TO VERIFY THE MODEL. PHASE 2 WILL INVOLVE GROWTH AND CHARACTERIZATION OF HETEROSTRUCTURES TO FEEDBACK INTO THE MODEL, AND TO ALLOW PREDICTION OF INTERFACE FORMATION. THE COMBINED PHASES 1 AND 2 WORK SHOULD LEAD TO A UNDERSTANDING OF THE FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN INTERFACE FORMATION IN OMCVD. SUCH UNDERSTANDING WILL BE NECESSARY FOR THE DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF III-V DEVICES.