Molecular beam epitaxy (mbe) is the currently preferred technique for manufacturing specialized compound semiconductor device materials for lasers, such as GaAs and its alloys with AlAs and InAs. This is because of the materials' superior reproducibility, uniformity, and non-hazardous nature. However, conventional mbe growth rates are about 1 micron per hour, which limits throughput. Combined with the high cost of equipment required, this makes conventional mbe wafers more expensive than organic metallic vapor phase epitaxy (omvpe) equivalents. This project evaluates the feasibility of mbe growth of planar doped GaAs/AlGaAs modfetlayers at rates up to 10 microns per hour, by studying the electrical properties of epitaxial structures as a function of increasing growth rate. This investigation will enable the cost of mbe GaAs wafers to be reduced to a fraction of the current cost. This would permit more widespread use of GaAs components in military and civilian systems such as phased array radar and high frequency communications.
