Growth kinetic model for liquid phase electro epitaxial growth of GaSb

Abstract

A two-dimensional growth kinetic model has been proposed to calculate the growth velocity and thickness of GaSb epitaxial layers grown by liquid phase electro epitaxy (LPEE) with a polycrystalline GaSb source material, which can be used to supply the solute species to the depleted growth solution during growth. The solute species (Sb) are continuously supplied from the source material to the growth solution by diffusion and electromigration. In the proposed theoretical model, numerical simulation has been followed to calculate the growth rate and thickness of the GaSb epitaxial layer from a Ga-rich solution. The theoretical findings indicate that the growth rate depends on the growth parameters such as growth temperature, growth time, diffusion of solute species, mobility of solute species, thickness of the substrate and source, thermoelectric effects and applied current density in the solution. The proposed model is based on the assumption that there is no nucleation in the solution. The growth rate, thickness of GaSb epitaxial layer and amount of dissolution of source material for different experimental growth conditions have been determined.