Molecular beam epitaxy

Molecular beam epitaxy, abbreviated MBE, is the deposition of one or more pure materials onto a single crystal wafer, one layer of atoms at a time, under ultra-high vacuum, forming a perfect crystal. In solid-source MBE, ultra-pure elements such as gallium and arsenic are heated in separate furnaces until they each slowly begin to evaporate. The evaporated elements (although strictly speaking the arsenic in this case is actually in a molecular form) condense on the wafer, where they react with each other, forming, in this case, gallium arsenide. The term "beam" simply means that evaporated atoms do not meet each other or any other gases until they reach the wafer.

External links

• University of Texas MBE group
• Brittney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics: Fabrication (Educational parody)