THE CURRENT STATUS OF PLASMA-ASSISTED MBE GROWTH OF GROUP III-NITRIDES

This article outlines very briefly our present state of knowledge conc erning the growth and characterization of group Ill-nitrides by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) and also discusses the appli cation of MBE for devices. We begin with a discussion of our current k nowledge of the growth kinetics for both binary compounds (AlN, GaN an d InN) and for alloys with mixed group III (InGaN and AlGaN) and group V (AlAsN and GaAsN) elements. We emphasize the important role that th e choice of substrates, stoichiometry and buffer layers play in determ ining the morphology of GaN. We comment briefly on the problems of dop ing group III-nitrides, particularly p-type, and finally we mention th e present status of devices grown by MBE compared with similar devices grown by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE). (C) 1998 Chapman & Hall.