Automatic shutter controller for molecular beam epitaxy

摘要

The molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) crystal growth technique utilizes thermal molecular beams which are stabilized by constant temperature control and controlled manually by metal shutters. Through the addition of an automated programmable shutter control system, the capabilities of the MBE system are enhanced. Two examples of automatic control of the shutters to grow epitaxial GaAs–AlGaAs layers are described. By changing the simple settings on the control units, the growth schedule can be easily altered to allow for the optimization of crystal structures used for innovative devices and basic research.