Chapter 1 Growth of Dislocation-free InP

Abstract

This chapter presents a study on the growth of dislocation-free indium phosphide (InP). In the past decade, opto-electronic devices based on InP substrates have gained an increasing interest, and there has been a growing demand for InP bulk material with a high purity and a low dislocation density. This wave of interest starts from the development of low-loss optical fibers with optimum characteristics in the 1.1 to 1.6 μ m wavelength region. The chapter illustrates a figure that explains two important parameters for state-of-the-art optical fibers. The chapter illustrates another figure that explains the energy gap variation versus the lattice parameter for different III–V compounds. Dislocation generation and propagation in semiconductors have been extensively studied via the thermoelasticity theory. Numerous models for the heat transfer in a high-pressure liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) puller are presented in the chapter. Dislocation evaluation is generally achieved by the optical microscopy of chemically etched surfaces or transmission X-ray topography (TXRT). Other techniques are also available for this—for example, polarized infrared microscopy (PIM) or electrochemical etching under illumination.