A review is given of the nucleation and growth processes occurring in thin film formation. Emphasis is given to quantitative nucleation theories and to the role of electron microscopy and surface techniques in providing data to test such theories. The relations between the thermodynamics of adsorption and the kinetics of crystal growth is stressed. Experimental examples are taken from the island growth, layer plus island (or Stranski-Krastanov) and layer growth modes. The shapes of growing crystallites are briefly discussed.

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The diffusion of Be from buried Be-doped layers in GaInAs has been studied for temperatures between 600 and 700 °C. An interstitial-substitutional model is proposed for the diffusion mechanism, which is dependent on growth conditions and consistent with the data presented. Under growth conditions where Be transport is minimized GaInAs junction field-effect transistors have been produced with transconductances in excess of 200 mS mm−1 for a 1-μm gate length.

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