Molecular beam epitaxy of novel semiconductor materials for microelectronic and optoelectronic device applications

III-V semiconductors and heterostructures have attracted intense interest for novel device applications for more than two decades. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has unique feature of precise growth control at the atomic level, i.e. atomic-layer engineering and has expanded the horizon of research at an unprecedented pace in these fields. This thesis mainly focused on the development of novel III-V semiconducting materials and devices, including III-arsenide compliant growth on silicon-on-insulator substrates, GaN growth with antimony as surfactant, Sb-based quaternary alloy growth with non-indium bonding for mid-infrared laser applications. Each chapter is outlined as the following.; In chapter I, the mechanism of compliant growth on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is investigated. Significant reduction of dislocation density has been achieved in epilayers grown by MBE on SOI, even though a large lattice mismatch about 4% exists between epilayers and silicon. A quantitative model has been established to explain this phenomenon for the first time. This model is based on the dislocation theory and the detailed experimental observations of dislocation behavior in our successful SiGe/SOI compliant growth and GaAs/SOI compliant growth.; To further demonstrate the advantage of compliant growth, high quality GaAs and related devices on Si substrates are investigated in Chapter II, which is of intense interest for monolithic integration of III-V high-speed and optical devices with advanced Si electronic circuitry. The density of dislocations is significantly reduced in the GaAs epilayers.; Chapter III investigates GaN growth with Sb as surfactant. Recently, GaN has attracted great attention for its potential applications in high-power, high-temperature microelectronic devices and optoelectronic devices operating in the blue to ultraviolet spectral region, due to its wide band gap and strong bond strength of 4.2 eV. It is desirable to have a layer-by-layer growth mode by two-dimensional step propagation to achieve high quality GaN epilayers. We used Sb as a surfactant, the first time ever reported for the growth of GaN by MBE, and investigated the effect of Sb on GaN growth using in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction.; In chapter IV, we investigate the effect of conventional indium bonding on antimonide materials growth by MBE. It is found in our experiments that the quality of GaSb substrate is significantly degraded due to InGaSb alloy formed on the backside of GaSb during MBE growth. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...