Gas-Phase and Surface Reactions in Xenon Lamp-Assisted Organometallic Vapor-Phase Epitaxy of ZnSe

In this paper, the influence of xenon lamp irradiation on gas-phase and surface reactions in organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy of ZnSe on GaAs is investigated. The irradiation only to the gas phase scarcely influences the growth rate, while irradiation to the growth surface is essential for growth rate enhancement. Numbers of incident photons and those of adhered molecules are found to be of the same order, i.e., most photons irradiated onto the substrate are associated with the epitaxial growth. The above experimental results strongly suggest that incident photons enhance some surface reactions, resulting in higher growth rates and lower growth temperatures compared with those reactions occuring under no irradiation.