12. Bulk Crystal Growth – Methods and Materials

This chapter covers the field of bulk single crystals of materials used in electronics and optoelectronics. These crystals are used in both active and passive modes (to produce devices directly in/on bulk-grown slices of material, or as substrates in epitaxial growth, respectively). Single-crystal material usually provides superior properties to polycrystalline or amorphous equivalents. The various bulk growth techniques are outlined, together with specific critical features, and examples are given of the types of materials (and their current typical sizes) grown by these techniques. Materials covered range from Group IV (Si, Ge, SiGe, diamond, SiC), Group III–V (such as GaAs, InP, nitrides) Group II–IV (including CdTe, ZnSe, MCT) through to a wide range of oxide/halide/phosphate/borate materials. This chapter is to be treated as a snapshot only; the interested reader is referred to the remainder of the chapters in this Handbook for more specific growth and characterization details on the various materials outlined in this chapter. This chapter also does not cover the more fundamental aspects of the growth of the particular materials covered; for these, the reader is again referred to relevant chapters within the Handbook, or to other sources of information in the general literature.