Journal of Crystal Growth 266 (2004) 354–362 Parametric studies of III-nitride MOVPE in commercial vertical high-speed rotating disk reactors A. Lobanova a , K. Mazaev a , E. Yakovlev a , R. Talalaev a , A. Galyukov a , Yu. Makarov a, *, D. Gotthold b , B. Albert b , L. Kadinski b , B. Peres b a STR, Inc., P.O. Box 70604, Richmond, VA 23255-0604, USA b Emcore Corporation, 145 Belmont Drive, Somerset, NJ 08873, USA Abstract A comprehensive analysis is made of III-nitride epitaxial growth to reveal possible effect of operating conditions on the flow pattern and growth rate uniformity in vertical high-speed rotating disk reactors. A number of three- dimensional computations have been made in terms of detailed physical–chemical MOVPE models. Mechanisms governing the flow patterns, as one of the factors affecting the growth efficiency, are considered. Special attention is given to parametric studies aimed at revealing the effect of operating conditions on the growth rate uniformity. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 81.05.Ea; 81.15.Gh; 82.20.Wt Keywords: A1. Computer simulation; A1.Vertical rotating-disk reactor; A3. Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy; B1. Nitrides 1. Introduction Vertical high-speed rotating disk reactor is a widely employed tool for the production of a variety of III–V and III-nitride semiconductor materials. Flow structure in a reactor is considered to be one of the main factors affecting the deposition behavior. Getting uniform deposition rates and abrupt interfaces between adjacent layers requires the optimization of the growth recipe to provide smooth flow patterns without large recirculations. There are several reasons for developing vortex structures in vertical MOVPE reactors. First of them is natural convection that may result in large vortices near the reactor centerline and corresponding thickness and composition non-uniformities. The effect of natural convection and ways of suppressing buoyancy-driven recirculations has been exten- sively studied earlier, using both 2D and 3D computations. At the same time, modern commercial reactors usually operate at reduced pressures, which lower significantly the probability of natural convection development. High susceptor rotation is an additional mechanism counteracting the upward motion of the gas by the buoyancy force. The susceptor rotation rate needed for this purpose can be approximately estimated using a so-called mixed convection parameter [1], which was demonstrated in ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-804-304-8092; fax: +1- 804-754-2114. E-mail address: yuri.makarov@semitech.us (Y. Makarov). 0022-0248/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2004.02.066