Process for vapor phase epitaxy of compound semiconductor

摘要

A process for forming a high quality epitaxial compound semiconductor layer of indium gallium nitride InxGa1-xN, (where 0<x<1) on a substrate. A first gas including indium trichloride (InCl3) and a second gas including ammonia (NH3) are introduced into a reaction chamber and heated at a first temperature. Indium nitride (InN) is grown epitaxially on the substrate by nitrogen (N2) carrier gas to form an InN buffer layer. Thereafter, a third gas including hydrogen chloride (H1) and gallium (Ga) is introduced with the first and second gases into a chamber heated at a second temperature higher than the first temperature and an epitaxial InxGa1-xN layer is grown on the buffer layer by N2 gas. By using helium, instead of N2, as carrier gas, the InxGa1-xN layer with more homogeneous quality is obtained. In addition, the InN buffer layer is allowed to be modified into a GaN buffer layer.