Nucleation mechanism in vapour phase epitaxial growth of binary, ternary and quaternary semiconductors

Abstract

According to the classical nucleation theory, the free energy formation for the nucleus is taken to be the sum of surface term, surface excess free energy, and bulk term, volume excess free energy. Recent experiments have pointed out some of the deficiencies of classical nucleation theory and have helped to simulate the search for a more fundamental approach. This chapter modifies the classical nucleation theory by applying the dependence of interfacial tension on the cluster size. The two-dimensional nucleation theory is modified introducing the dependence of interfacial tension on the size of the nucleus and critical nucleation parameters that are evaluated applying for epitaxial nucleation of InP and GaAs from vapor phase.