The pulse reactor—A high-efficiency, high-precision low-pressure MOCVD machine

A cyclic-operation low-pressure MOCVD reactor has been developed in which a multilayer device structure can be grown in a succession of a few thousands of "growth cycles". In each cycle, of typical duration ˜1 s, growth proceeds from a low-pressure (1 mbar) mixture which during the reaction is immobile with respect to the substrates. In one cycle 1 to 30 atomic layers can be deposited. Expected advantages are: (a) improved layer uniformity in thickness and composition; (b) highly efficient use of metalorganics; (c) ideally sharp transitions; (d) straightforward scale-up possibility to large reactor volume.