Surfaces molecular beam epitaxy

In practical applications, gas-surface etching reactions are carried out in plasma reactors over the approximate pressure range 10 -1 Torr, and deposition reactions are carried out by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV below 10 Torr) or by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) in the approximate range 10 -10 Torr. These applied processes can be quite complex, and key individual reaction rate constants are needed as input for modelling and simulation studies—and ultimately for optimization—of the overall processes. 

Electrical Properties. Generally, deposited thin films have an electrical resistivity that is higher than that of the bulk material. This is often the result of the lower density and high surface-to-volume ratio in the film. In semiconductor films, the electron mobiHty and lifetime can be affected by the point defect concentration, which also affects electromigration. These effects are eliminated by depositing the film at low rates, high temperatures, and under very controUed conditions, such as are found in molecular beam epitaxy and vapor-phase epitaxy. 

Recent applications of e-beam and HF-plasma SNMS have been published in the following areas aerosol particles [3.77], X-ray mirrors [3.78, 3.79], ceramics and hard coatings [3.80-3.84], glasses [3.85], interface reactions [3.86], ion implantations [3.87], molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) layers [3.88], multilayer systems [3.89], ohmic contacts [3.90], organic additives [3.91], perovskite-type and superconducting layers [3.92], steel [3.93, 3.94], surface deposition [3.95], sub-surface diffusion [3.96], sensors [3.97-3.99], soil [3.100], and thermal barrier coatings [3.101]. 

Clearly, there are situations where we have to give up this assumption. A typical case is molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) (see [3,12-14] and [15-19]), where particles are shot onto the surface of a crystal rather than condensing slowly from a thermally equilibrated vapor-phase. In this case we will have to be very specific about all the experimental boundary conditions and... 

O. Pierre-Louis, C. Misbah, Y. Saito, J. Krug, P. Politi. New nonlinear evolution equation for steps during molecular beam epitaxy on vicinal surfaces. Phys Rev Lett 50 4221, 1998. 

Chemical vapor deposition may be defined as the deposition of a solid on a heated surface from a chemical reaction in the vapor phase. It belongs to the class of vapor-transfer processes which is atomistic in nature, that is the deposition species are atoms or molecules or a combination ofthese. Beside CVD, they include various physical-vapor-deposition processes (PVD) such as evaporation, sputtering, molecular-beam epitaxy, and ion plating. 

Electrocatalytic activity of supported metal particles has been investigated on surfaces prepared in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) molecular beam epitaxy system (DCA Instruments) modified to allow high throughput (parallel) synthesis of thin-film materials [Guerin and Hayden, 2006]. The system is shown in Fig. 16.1, and consisted of two physical vapor deposition (PVD) chambers, a sputtering chamber, and a surface characterization chamber (CC), all interconnected by a transfer chamber (TC). The entire system was maintained at UHV, with a base pressure of 10 °mbar. Sample access was achieved through a load lock, and samples could be transferred... 

Molecular beam epitaxy is a widely used technique for growing structures on crystal surfaces. One of the goals is to be able to control the growth process to such extent that one can make the nanostructures complex enough for a particular purpose. An ambitious example is a quantum computer. ... 

An outgrowth of prior thin-film technology and of basic surface science research has been molecular beam epitaxy—the MBE formation... 

In molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) [317], molecular beams are used to deposit epitaxial layers onto the surface of a heated crystalline substrate (typically at 500-600° C). Epitaxial means that the crystal structure of the grown layer matches the crystal structure of the substrate. This is possible only if the two materials are the same (homoepitaxy) or if the crystalline structure of the two materials is very similar (heteroepitaxy). In MBE, a high purity of the substrates and the ion beams must be ensured. Effusion cells are used as beam sources and fast shutters allow one to quickly disrupt the deposition process and create layers with very sharply defined interfaces. Molecular beam epitaxy is of high technical importance in the production of III-V semiconductor compounds for sophisticated electronic and optoelectronic devices. Overviews are Refs. [318,319],... 

There are different criterion of how to classify solid-solid interfaces. One is the sharpness of the boundary. It could be abrupt on an atomic scale as, for example, in III-IV semiconductor heterostructures prepared by molecular beam epitaxy. In contrast, interdiffusion can create broad transitions. Surface reactions can lead to the formation of a thin layer of a new compound. The interfacial structure and composition will therefore depend on temperature, diffusion coefficient, miscibility, and reactivity of the components. Another criterion is the crystallinity of the interface. The interface may be crystalline-crystalline, crystalline-amorphous, or completely amorphous. Even when both solids are crystalline, the interface may be disturbed and exhibit a high density of defects. 

For the study of crystalline surfaces, ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) is required. The preparation of clean crystalline surfaces is usually carried out within the UHV system by cleavage, sputtering, evaporation, thermal treatment, or molecular beam epitaxy. 

Thin semiconductor films (and other nanostructured materials) are widely used in many applications and, especially, in microelectronics. Current technological trends toward ultimate miniaturization of microelectronic devices require films as thin as less than 5 nm, that is, containing only several atomic layers [1]. Experimental deposition methods have been described in detail in recent reviews [2-7]. Common thin-film deposition techniques are subdivided into two main categories physical deposition and chemical deposition. Physical deposition techniques, such as evaporation, molecular beam epitaxy, or sputtering, involve no chemical surface reactions. In chemical deposition techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and its most important version, atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical precursors are used to obtain chemical substances or their components deposited on the surface. 

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