Surfactant-mediated growth of semiconductor materials

Abstract

During epitaxial growth of semiconducting materials using either molecular beam epitaxy or organometallic vapour deposition, the addition of a surfactant can enhance two-dimensional layer-by-layer growth. This modified growth process is now called the surfactant-mediated growth (SMG) method. It has had an important impact on the development of technologically important materials in device applications, such as heterostructures used for laser applications. Recent developments that use surfactants to improve doping profiles in semiconducting systems and antisurfactants (ASMG) to grow quantum dots further ensure that SMG/ASMG will play a major role in the future development of optoelectronic materials and nanoparticles. In this paper, we review important earlier experimental work involving the SMG method as well as some recent developments. Theoretical work involving first-principles methods and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are discussed but confined only to the surfactant effect.