In Situ Gravimetric Monitoring of the GaAs Growth Process in Atomic Layer Epitaxy

A gravimetric method for in situ monitoring of atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) is proposed and applied to the growth of GaAs by halogen transport ALE. An ALE growth system with an electrobalance is developed as a monitoring system. In the conventional method of measurement the growth rate of ALE is obtained as an average value, but the system can directly monitor the growth rate and the surface coverage in each cycle in actual ALE growth conditions. It is shown that the growth of the monomolecular layer unit occurs in each cycle in halogen transport GaAs ALE, and the gravimetric method makes in situ and real-time monitoring of growth rate possible on a submonolayer scale.