Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition of III-V and II-VI binary, ternary and quaternary compounds is facilitated by maintaining a relatively high flow rate of reactants and modulating the rate of flow by alternately directing the flow at the high rate into a reactor for use and then directing the flow to a vent. Growth rates of the order of 25 Angstroms per minute were achieved in the epitaxial growth of indium phosphide by flow-rate modulation. This produced crystals of device quality having measured carrier mobilities of 2850-3600. In the case of epitaxial growth of ternary and quaternary compounds, improved control of deposition rates is achieved by applying flow-rate modulation to the compound carriers of each of the Group V and VI elements.