Method of forming a silicon nitride layer

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The above problems and others are at least partially solved and the above purposes and others are realized in a method of forming a silicon nitride layer or film on a semiconductor wafer structure including the steps of providing a semiconductor wafer structure with a surface and forming a silicon nitride layer on the surface of the wafer structure using a molecular beam of high purity elemental Si and an atomic beam of high purity nitrogen.
In a preferred embodiment, a III-V compound semiconductor wafer structure is heated in an ultra high vacuum system to a temperature below the decomposition temperature of said compound semiconductor wafer structure and a silicon nitride layer is formed using a molecular beam of Si provided by any one of thermal evaporation and electron beam evaporation, and an atomic nitrogen beam provided by any one of RF or microwave plasma discharge.