GROWTH OF COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR SINGLE CRYSTAL

PURPOSE:To accomplish growth of the above single crystal in high quality and yield using the LEC process, by facing the upper end of the outer circumference of a graphite crucible and the inner circumference of a thermal insulating plate each other and carrying out pulling of single crystal. CONSTITUTION:An inner crucible 8 made of PBN is put in a graphite crucible 2, and a raw material for GaAs growth and a sealer are put in the inner crucible 8. Thence, a pressure vessel 1 is evacuated to vacuum followed by introducing Ar gas into said vessel 1 to effect pressurization. The crucibles are heated by a heater 4 to melt the raw material and sealer into raw melt 9 and liquid sealer 10 respectively, followed by allowing the pulling shaft to descend to bring a seed crystal into contact with the surface of the raw melt 9 and performing pulling growth of a GaAs single crystal 11 by a specified operation. This process will reduce variation in the diameter of the single crystal, enhance the single crystal yield and enable high-quality crystal growth in high reproducibility. This process can also be applied to the other group III to V compound semiconductors.