Inventors:
Peter D. Brewer - Westlake Village CA
Clifford A. LeBeau - Newbury Park CA
Assignee:
Hughes Aircraft Company - Los Angeles CA
International Classification:
C23C 1600
Abstract:
Ultraviolet (UV) light from a lamp or UV laser, such as a metal can short arc xenon lamp or excimer laser, respectively, is provided for cracking Group V and Group VI species comprising clusters (dimers and tetramers) or metal-organic molecules to form monomers (atoms). The UV radiation interacts with a molecular beam of Group V and Group VI species subsequent to their generation in a source cell and thermal cracking. The source cell may comprise an effusion source in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) apparatus, a thermal cracker cell in gas-source MBE apparatus, or a gas injector cell in metal-organic MBE apparatus (MOMBE). Light from the UV lamp or laser is coupled into a vacuum chamber in which the source cell is located, at a point below the source cell and is then directed along a path parallel to the source cell by a first reflector and finally directed onto the thermally-cracked beam of molecules by a second reflector, where the UV radiation photo-cracks the molecular beam.