Materials Science of Thin Films, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8 Epitaxy

8.1 INTRODUCTION

Two ancient Greek words, επl (epi, placed or resting upon) and ταζlζ (taxis, arrangement), are the root of the modern word epitaxy, which refers to extended single-crystal film formation on top of a crystalline substrate. Epitaxy is arguably the most important phenomenon in semiconductor thin-film device technology. Interestingly, however, epitaxy is usually of little concern in most other major thin-film applications, e.g., optical, hard, and protective coatings and films used for recording, storage, and display of information. Although epitaxy was probably first observed to occur in alkali halide crystals more than a century ago, the actual word epitaxy was apparently introduced into the literature by the ...