J. A. Freitas

Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of GaN on Si(111): Stress control and application to field-effect transistors

Two schemes of nucleation and growth of gallium nitride on Si(111) substrates are investigated and the structural and electrical properties of the resulting films are reported. Gallium nitride films grown using a 10–500 nm-thick AlN buffer layer deposited at high temperature (∼1050 °C) are found to be under 260–530 MPa of tensile stress and exhibit cracking, the origin of which is discussed. The threading dislocation density in these films increases with increasing AlN thickness, covering a range of 1.1 to >5.8×109 cm−2. Films grown using a thick, AlN-to-GaN graded buffer layer are found to be under compressive stress and are completely crack free. Heterojunction field effect transistors fabricated on such films result in well-defined saturation and pinch-off behavior with a saturated current of ∼525 mA/mm and a transconductance of ∼100 mS/mm in dc operation.

Observation of Deep Traps Responsible for Current Collapse in GaN Metal-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

Deep traps responsible for current collapse phenomena in GaN metal–semiconductor field-effect transistors have been detected using a spectroscopic technique that employs the optical reversibility of current collapse to determine the photoionization spectra of the traps involved. In the n-channel device investigated, the two electron traps observed were found to be very deep and strongly coupled to the lattice. Photoionization thresholds for these traps were determined at 1.8 and at 2.85 eV. Both also appear to be the same traps recently associated with persistent photoconductivity effects in GaN.

Fabrication and characterization of GaN FETs

Abstract The current status of GaN-based FET technology and performance is reviewed. The fabrication details and the dc and microwave characteristics of GaN MESFETs that utilize Si-doped channels on semi-insulating buffer layers are presented. MESFETs with a 0.8 μm gate have exhibited an f T and f max of 6 and 14 GHz, respectively. These devices have excellent pinchoff characteristics and a source-drain breakdown voltage of over 85 V. A high-field current-collapse phenomenon is observed in these MESFETs in the absence of light. The characteristics of this current collapse as a function of temperature, illuminating wavelength, and time are described. A model describing the current collapse in terms of hot electron injection into the buffer layer is presented.

Al and B ion‐implantations in 6H‐ and 3C‐SiC

Low (keV) and high (MeV) energy Al and B implants were performed into n‐type 6H‐ and 3C‐SiC at both room temperature and 850 °C. The material was annealed at 1100, 1200, or 1400 °C for 10 min and characterized by secondary ion mass spectrometry, Rutherford backscattering (RBS), photoluminescence, Hall and capacitance‐voltage measurement techniques. For both Al and B implants, the implant species was gettered at 0.7 Rp (where Rp is the projected range) in samples implanted at 850 °C and annealed at 1400 °C. In the samples that were amorphized by the room temperature implantation, a distinct damage peak remained in the RBS spectrum even after 1400 °C annealing. For the samples implanted at 850 °C, which were not amorphized, the damage peak disappeared after 1400 °C annealing. P‐type conduction is observed only in samples implanted by Al at 850 °C and annealed at 1400 °C in Ar, with 1% dopant electrical activation.

Identification of Si and O donors in hydride-vapor-phase epitaxial GaN

Donor impurity excitation spectra in the infrared from two high-quality, not-intentionally doped, hydride-vapor-phase epitaxial GaN wafers are reported. Two previously observed shallow donors which we designate N1 and N2 were observed in both wafers. However, spectra of one wafer are dominated by N1 and spectra of the other by N2. A comparison of infrared and secondary ion mass spectroscopic data allows identification of N1 as Si and N2 as O. Silicon is the shallowest uncompensated donor in these samples with an activation energy of 30.18±0.1 meV in the freestanding Samsung wafer. The activation energy of O is found to be 33.20±0.1 meV. An unidentified third donor with an activation energy of 31.23±0.1 meV also was observed. Integrated absorption cross sections are found to be 8.5×10−14 cm for Si and 8.6×10−14 cm for O.

The effect of GaN and AlN Buffer layers on GaN film properties grown on both c-plane and a-plane sapphire

This paper presents a comparative study of the properties of GaN grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy, using both a GaN and A1N buffer layer, as a function of sapphire orientation (c-plane vs a-plane). Results are presented for varying the thickness of the buffer layer, varying the growth temperature of the GaN film, and also varying the ammonia/trimethylgallium mass flow ratio. The electron Hall mobilities of GaN films grown on an A1N buffer layer were, in general, higher compared to films grown using a GaN buffer layer. In addition, growth on a-plane sapphire resulted in higher quality films (over a wider range of buffer thicknesses) than growth on c-plane sapphire. The room temperature electron mobilities were also found to be dependent on, not only the growth temperature, but also the ammonia/trimethylgallium mass flow ratio.

On the origin of electrically active defects in AlGaN alloys grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy

Shallow and deep centers were studied by means of temperature dependent Hall effect and photoluminescence (PL) measurements in two sets of undoped n‐AlGaN samples grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. The samples of these two series were grown under different conditions and had, as a result, electron concentrations differing by several orders of magnitude. The composition dependence of ionization energies of dominant donors in these two sets of samples is very different indicating that different types of centers are involved, but in both cases they are most probably related to some native defects. These defects behave as hydrogen‐like donors for low Al compositions and become increasingly deeper with increasing Al content. The shallow‐deep transition occurs at about x=0.2 in the low conductivity AlxGa1−xN series and at about x=0.5 for the high conductivity series. Several PL bands were detected in AlGaN and it is shown that the band at 3.05 eV is due to a radiative transition between deep donors in...

Persistent photoconductivity in n-type GaN

Persistent photoconductivity has been observed in n-type GaN:Si. The effect is seen at room temperature in both nonoptimally grown films as well as in device quality channel layers. The relaxation dynamics are found to agree with a stretched exponential model of recovery. A comparison between different samples, based upon stretched exponential parameters, Hall measurements, and photoluminescence data is made. The data suggest that the cause of persistent photoconductivity is the same among the different samples and that there is a transition in the relaxation dynamics between room temperature and 130 °C.

Photoionization spectroscopy of traps in GaN metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors

Measurements of the spectral and intensity dependences of the optically-induced reversal of current collapse in a GaN metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) have been compared to calculated results. The model assumes a net transfer of charge from the conducting channel to trapping states in the high-resistivity region of the device. The reversal, a light-induced increase in the trap-limited drain current, results from the photoionization of trapped carriers and their return to the channel under the influence of the built-in electric field associated with the trapped charge distribution. For a MESFET in which two distinct trapping centers have been spectrally resolved, the experimentally measured dependence upon light intensity was fitted using this model. The two traps were found to have very different photoionization cross-sections but comparable concentrations (4×1011 cm−2 and 6×1011 cm−2), suggesting that both traps contribute comparably to the observed current collapse.

Photoluminescence spectroscopy of ion‐implanted 3C‐SiC grown by chemical vapor deposition

Low‐temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy has been used to characterize as‐grown and ion‐implanted 3C‐SiC films grown by chemical vapor deposition on Si(100) substrates. The D1 and D2 defect PL bands reported previously in ion‐implanted Lely‐grown SiC were also observed in the as‐grown chemical vapor deposited films, and the effects of annealing (1300–1800 °C) on these PL bands as observed in as‐grown films and films implanted with B, Al, or P have been studied. As reported previously for Lely‐grown SiC, the spectral details of the defect PL bands and their annealing characteristics were found to be independent of the particular implanted‐ion species.