Patent ID: 6165874
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: C30B,H01L,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of producing single-crystal atomically-flat surfaces on a single-crystal substrate, said method comprising the steps of:(a) choosing a single-crystal substrate material which exhibits the property that the material contains at least one growth plane orientation whereby under selected growth conditions the growth rate due to step-flow growth is greater than at least one hundred (100) times the growth rate due to growth involving two-dimensional nucleation;(b) preparing a planar growth surface on said substrate that is parallel to within a predetermined angle relative to said at least one growth plane orientation of said substrate;(c) removing material in said substrate so as to define at least one selected separated area having boundaries;(d) treating said substrate so as to remove any sources of unwanted crystal nucleation and to remove any unwanted sources of steps;(e) depositing a homoepitaxial film over said at least one selected separated area under selected conditions so as to provide a step-flow growth while suppressing two-dimensional nucleation; and(f) continuing said deposition of said homoepitaxial film until said step-flow growth obtains an atomically-flat epitaxial film surface on each of said at least one separated area where said atomically-flat surface is parallel to said selected crystal plane.