Upgrade of metal organic vapor phase epitaxy reactors for thermoelectric and magnetic semiconductor alloys and heterostructures

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This equipment proposal requests funds to complete the construction of a metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy reactor (MOVPE) for the growth of magnetic semiconductors alloys (MSA) and low dimensional thermoelectric (TE) structures at the Department of Engineering Physics of the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal. It also requests funds to replace specialty valves to ensure the adequate operation of both this new and the existing MOVPE reactor which has now more than 17 years of use. For the MSA/TE reactor still under construction we need replacing of the "chemical" vacuum pump at the reactor core, and the electronic and computer control units of the fast switching gas manifold. This control is essential to provide sharp interfaces in device heterostructures. We also need flow meters, a binary concentration gas monitor, and new quartz ware and graphite susceptors.  This MSA/TE reactor, partially built from parts of an old Nortelnetworks reactor donated to our laboratories, has already produced the first GaMnP/GaP(001) films by this technique. The funds we request will help upgrade and complete this reactor by the addition of new organometallic lines, as well as providing essential equipment to continue adequate operation of both reactors at our facilities. These MOVPE systems are part of the central facilities of the Montreal Thin Films Group (GCM) and complement the expertise in materials science, semiconductor device design, fabrication and characterization of many of its members. The new reactor dedicated to MSA/TE, which needs to be completed, introduces magnetic elements such as Mn, or column VI elements, which are contaminants highly incompatible with the projects carried out in the older reactor. Both systems are at the core of a broad program in III-V semiconductor crystal growth for projects on: (1) epitaxy of MSA for fundamental studies on transport in magnetic and semiconducting heterostructures, (2) fundamental studies of materials properties, in particular those which are affected by strain and strain-relaxation, including dilute nitrides and reduced dimensionality structures such as quantum dots and (3) novel electronic, optoelectronic, and thermoelectric device development.