The design, modeling, and experimental verification of a novel optical showerhead growth chamber for organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE) is presented. The reactor design incorporates a transparent quartz showerhead which provides large aperture optical access for in situ optical measurements, while maintaining excellent hydrodynamic flow characteristics. Numerical simulations of growth rate and growth rate uniformity were performed using fluid dynamics modeling codes, including the effects of heat flow and gas phase diffusion. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis on InGaAs/GaAs samples grown in the new reactor chamber showed good agreement between experimental data and the simulated growth results. It was demonstrated that very good growth and compositional uniformity, with non-uniformity as low as 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively, can be achieved in our reactor even without high speed rotation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.