Three decades of MBE

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) began in the late 60s/early 70s initially as a study of surface reactions, but developed rapidly into a viable method for the growth of semiconductors, initially for III-V compounds. As a very rough guide to progress, the first decade was concerned with understanding and developing the MBE process. The second decade exploited this new growth process to produce very high quality low-dimensional structures (LDS), including superlattices (SLs), quantum wells (QWs), quantum dots (QDs) and two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) etc. The third decade has used MBE technology to provide device structures for applications including lasers for optical recording and high-speed electronic devices for mobile phones. During the three decades, the MBE method has been applied to a whole range of materials including, III-V and II-VI compound semiconductors, group IV semiconductors, metals, magnetic materials and organic compounds.