"Real Time Studies of Processing in the MOVPE Environment"

Carol Thompson, Northern Illinois University

X rays provide an excellent atomic-scale probe of surfaces, interfaces, and films under non-vacuum processes and conditions such as metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Thompson and collaborators have built and performed studies using an MOVPE deposition system designed to permit surface x-ray scattering during growth and subsequent processing. These class of experiments can provide unique in situ and real time structural probes for the study of the MOVPE deposition and epitaxial films grown by non-vacuum processes. She will give an overview of recent insights from experiments using this system, providing examples from their studies of oxide ferroelectric systems (chemical control of switching process in epitaxial ferroelectric films), and nitride systems (oscillatory growth and decomposition cycle of InN during MOVPE on GaN).