Liquid Encapsulated Melt Zone Processing of GaAs

A liquid encapsulated melt zone process has been developed for single crystal growth of GaAs. Single crystals of 40mm long have been grown with this technique. To avoid unwanted nucleation events and maintain a constant crystal diameter, from top to bottom growth using a short zone with a convex zone surface was found to give the best results. An arsenic overpressure way used to in conjunction with a B₂O₃ encapsulant in order to suppress arsenic dissociation from the melt and maintain the stoichiometry of the crystal.