In0.3Ga0.7As Plate Crystals Grown by the Traveling Liquidus-Zone (TLZ) Method

The TLZ method is a new crystal growth method which we have invented for the growth of homogeneous mixed crystals. The influence of convection in a melt on the compositional homogeneity of TLZ-grown InxGa1−xAs crystals was investigated by the growth of various diameter crystals on the ground. The results have shown that excellent compositional homogeneity is realized even on the ground if the crystal diameter is less than 2 mm and convection in a melt is suppressed. However, such small diameter crystals cannot be used for device application. Then, we tried plate crystal growth for obtaining large surface area since the limitation of the thickness of plate crystal is useful for suppressing convection in a melt. In0.3Ga0.7As plate crystals with 10 mm width and 2 mm thickness showed good compositional homogeneity as expected but the grown crystals were poly crystals. Single crystallization of plate crystals is required for device fabrication and we made effort for growing plate-like In0.3Ga0.7As single crystals. Here, we report those results obtained in our study in the fiscal year of 2003.