MOVPE growth of III-V compounds for optoelectronic and electronic applications

This paper reviews some of the most important aspects of MOVPE of III-V semiconductors. The paper starts with fundamental aspects of MOVPE in general, and turns to the use of novel precursors and precursor combinations with special emphasis on improvements in safety, material consumption, reactivities or precursor combinations and layer purity. The next section discusses special problems and advantages of selective area growth and growth on patterned substrates. Then the growth of heterostructures, quantum wells and superlattices for field-effect transistors, Wannier-Stark modulators and resonant tunnelling diodes is described. It will be shown that different growth parameters, e.g., different switching sequences between individual layers, are needed for either optoelectronic or electronic devices. The usefulness of MOVPE for various material combinations such as AlGaAs/GaAs, InP/InGaAs, InGaAs/InGaAs, InGaAsP/InGaAsP, InAs/AlSb and InAs/InPSb will be demonstrated by material properties and device performances.