Currently, some 60% of the multi-billion dollar optoelectronics industry is based on liquid phase epitaxially (LPE) grown material. LPE is a mature technology and has been used in the production of III-V compound semiconductor optoelectronic devices for some forty years. LPE has been applied to silicon, germanium, SiC, and II-VI and IV-VI compound semiconductors, as well as magnetic garnets, superconductors, ferroelectrics, and other optical materials. Many semiconductor devices including LEDs, laser diodes, infrared detectors, heterojunction bipolar transistors and heterointerface solar cells were pioneered with LPE. This is mainly due to the low costs that have been achieved with this technology, but also due to the very high quality of material produced, which often exceeds that possible by vapor phase epitaxies.
As the chapters in this book describe in detail, on-going efforts and new developments in LPE continue to widen its scope of applications and circumvent its customary limitations. The contents cover some introductory chapters, including an historical one on work in Russia prior to 1990, one on phase diagrams and modeling and one on equipment issues, before discussing the most important materials from silicon/silicon carbide, through the III-V and II-IV compounds to garnets, nitrides and a chapter on novel developments and one on LEDs. The contributors come from a wide variety of countries and include both academics and industrialists to give a balanced treatment.
This book is mainly intended for postgraduate students to enable them to gain an insight into this extremely important area and specialist in the field both in academia and industry who will benefit from its wide-ranging and topical coverage of the subject.
