Prospects of Thin Film Growth in the 21st Century(<Special Issue>Frontiers of Thin Film Crystal Growth for the New Millennium)

Abstract

In the present paper, the contributions of crystal growth in the fabrication of the electronic and optical devices in the 20th century are reviewed first. The largest event that showed the importance of the crystal growth was the invention of transistor. Without single crystal of germanium, this invention might not be happened. The developments of various growth methods such as liquid phase epitaxy, molecular beam epitaxy and metal organic vapor phase epitaxy have made it possible to realize room temperature cw operation of semiconductor laser, inventions of high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), MQW lasers and blue/ultra-violet diode lasers . Basing on the above background, the prospects of the thin film growth in the 21st century were discussed. As the important subjects to be intensively studied, nano-structure fabrication, quantum mechanical approach of the crystal growth theory, heteroepitaxy of large lattice mismatched system, growth of important materials, crystal growth under microgravity in space and crystal growth for the solar battery are chosen and their prospects are described.