The control of stoichiometry in epitaxial semiconductor structures: interfacial chemistry—property relations

Summary shop on the control of stoichiometry in epitaxial semiconductor structures was held on 12–26 August, 1995 at Vesser in Germany1. The secluded location of the workshop in the forest of Thuringia and its informal style stimulated extensive private discussions among the participants and promoted new contacts between young scientists from Eastern and Western Europe and the USA. Topics addressed by the presentations were interactions of precursors to heteroepitaxy and doping with the substrate surface, the control of interfacial properties under the conditions of heteroexpitaxy for selected materials systems, methods of characterization of interfaces and native point defects in semiconductor heterostructures and an in-depth evaluation of the present status of the control and the characterization of the point defect chemistry for one specific semiconductor (ZnGeP2), including studies of both heterostructures and bulk single crystals. The selected examples of presentations and comments given here represent individual choices—made by the author—to highlight major points of the discussions.