Coherent phase diagram and interface relaxation processes during LPE of A^IIIB^V solid solutions

Abstract The thermodynamic equations describing the metastable equilibrium between elastically strained solid and liquid phases in quaternary systems are obtained in terms of simple solution theory. The developed thermodynamic models were used to describe the growth of deformed layers of solid solutions and the complicated process of dissolution of substrates for multicomponent AIIIBV systems. The reliability in predicting the behaviour of a multicomponent system during the LPE process was markedly increased. An isothermal technique of solid solution epitaxy was investigated, which utilizes the supersaturated state arising from lattice mismatch between the contacting phases at the stage of the initial liquid phase epitaxial formation.