S.B. Lisesivdin

Scattering analysis of 2DEG carrier extracted by QMSA in undoped Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN heterostructures

Hall effect measurements on undoped Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN heterostructures grown by a metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) technique have been carried out as a function of temperature (20–350 K) and magnetic field (0–1.5 T). Magnetic field dependent Hall data were analysed using the quantitative mobility spectrum analysis (QMSA) technique. The mobility and density within the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN interface and within the underlying GaN layer were successfully separated by QMSA. Mobility analysis has been carried out using both the measured Hall data at a single field and the extracted data from QMSA. Analysis of the temperature-dependent mobility of 2DEG extracted from QMSA indicates that the interface roughness and alloy disorder scattering mechanisms are the dominant scattering mechanisms at low temperatures while at high temperatures only polar optical phonon scattering is the dominant mechanism. Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN interface related parameters such as well width, deformation potential constant and correlation length were also accurately obtained from the fits of the simple analytical expressions of scattering mechanisms to the 2DEG mobility.

The effect of AlN interlayer thicknesses on scattering processes in lattice-matched AlInN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas heterostructures

The scattering mechanisms governing the transport properties of high mobility AlInN/AlN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) heterostructures with various AIN spacer layer thicknesses from zero to 2 nm were presented. The major scattering processes including acoustic and optical phonons, ionized impurity, interface roughness, dislocation and alloy disorder were applied to the temperature-dependent mobility data. It was found that scattering due mainly to alloy disorder limits the electron mobility for samples having spacer layer thicknesses up to 0.3 nm. On the other hand, alloy scattering is greatly reduced as the AlN spacer layer thickness increases further, and hence the combination of acoustic, optical and interface roughness become operative with different degrees of effectiveness over different temperature ranges. The room-temperature electron mobility was observed to increase gradually as the AlN spacer layer increases. A peak electron mobility of 1630 cm2 V−1 s−1 was realized for the sample consisting of a 1 nm AlN spacer layer. Then, the electron mobility decreased for the sample with 2 nm AlN. Moreover, the measured 2DEG densities were also compared with the theoretical predictions, which include both piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization components existing at AlN/GaN interfaces. The experimental sheet carrier densities for all AlInN/AlN/GaN HEMT structures were found to be in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions when the parasitic (unintentional) GaN layer deposited between AlN and AlInN was taken into account. From these analyses, 1 nm AlN spacer layer thickness is found to be the optimum thickness required for high electron mobility and hence low sheet resistance once the sheet carrier density is increased to the theoretically expected value for the sample without unintentional GaN layer.

Scattering analysis of two-dimensional electrons in AlGaN/GaN with bulk related parameters extracted by simple parallel conduction extraction method

We carried out the temperature (22–350 K) and magnetic field (0.05 and 1.4 T) dependent Hall mobility and carrier density measurements on Al0.22Ga0.78N/GaN heterostructures with AlN interlayer grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition. Hall data is analyzed with a simple parallel conduction extraction method and temperature dependent mobility and carrier densities of the bulk and two-dimensional (2D) electrons are extracted successfully. The results for the bulk carriers are discussed using a theoretical model that includes the most important scattering mechanisms that contribute to the mobility. In order to investigate the mobility of two-dimensional electron gas, we used a theoretical model that takes into account the polar optical phonon scattering, acoustic phonon scattering, background impurity scattering, and interface roughness scattering in 2D. In these calculations, the values are used for the deformation potential and ionized impurity density values were obtained from the bulk scattering ...

Electronic transport characterization of AlGaN∕GaN heterostructures using quantitative mobility spectrum analysis

Resistivity and Hall effect measurements in nominally undoped Al0.25Ga0.75N∕GaN heterostructures grown on sapphire substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition are carried out as a function of temperature (20–350K) and magnetic field (0–1.5T). The measurement results are analyzed using the quantitative mobility spectrum analysis techniques. It is found that there is strong two-dimensional electron gas localization below 100K, while the thermally activated minority carriers with the activation energies of ∼58 and ∼218meV contribute to the electron transport at high temperatures.

Growth parameter investigation of Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN/AlN heterostructures with Hall effect measurements

Hall effect measurements on unintentionally doped Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN/AlN heterostructures grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were carried out as a function of temperature (20–300 K) and magnetic field (0–1.4 T). Magnetic-field-dependent Hall data are analyzed using the quantitative mobility spectrum analysis (QMSA) technique. The QMSA technique successfully separated electrons in the 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN interface from other 2D and 3D conduction mechanisms of the samples. 2DEG mobilities, carrier densities and conductivities of the investigated samples are compared at room temperature and low temperature (20 K). For a detailed investigation of the 2DEG-related growth parameters, the scattering analyses of the extracted 2DEG were carried out for all of the samples. Using the results of the scattering analyses, the relation between the growth and scattering parameters was investigated. Increments in the interface roughness (IFR) are reported with the increased GaN buffer growth temperatures. In addition, a linear relation between the deformation potential and interface roughness (IFR) scattering is pointed out for the investigated samples, which may lead to a better understanding of the mechanism of IFR scattering.

Mobility limiting scattering mechanisms in nitride-based two-dimensional heterostructures with the InGaN channel

The scattering mechanisms limiting the carrier mobility in AlInN/AlN/InGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) heterostructures were investigated and compared with devices without InGaN channel. Although it is expected that InGaN will lead to relatively higher electron mobilities than GaN, Hall mobilities were measured to be much lower for samples with InGaN channels as compared to GaN. To investigate these observations the major scattering processes including acoustic and optical phonons, ionized impurity, interface roughness, dislocation and alloy disorder were applied to the temperature-dependent mobility data. It was found that scattering due mainly to interface roughness limits the electron mobility at low and intermediate temperatures for samples having InGaN channels. The room temperature electron mobilities which were determined by a combination of both optical phonon and interface roughness scattering were measured between 630 and 910 cm2 (V s)−1 with corresponding sheet carrier densities of 2.3–1.3 × 1013 cm−2. On the other hand, electron mobilities were mainly limited by intrinsic scattering processes such as acoustic and optical phonons over the whole temperature range for Al0.82In0.18N/AlN/GaN and Al0.3Ga0.7N/AlN/GaN heterostructures where the room temperature electron mobilities were found to be 1630 and 1573 cm2 (V s)−1 with corresponding sheet carrier densities of 1.3 and 1.1 × 1013 cm−2, respectively. By these analyses, it could be concluded that the interfaces of HEMT structures with the InGaN channel layer are not as good as that of a conventional GaN channel where either AlGaN or AlInN barriers are used. It could also be pointed out that as the In content in the AlInN barrier layer increases the interface becomes smoother resulted in higher electron mobility.

A simple parallel conduction extraction method (SPCEM) for MODFETs and undoped GaN-based HEMTs

We report a simple method to extract the mobility and sheet carrier densities of conduction channels in conventional modulation doped field-effect transistor (MODFET) structures and unintentionally doped GaN-based high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures for a special case. Extraction of the conduction channels from the magnetic field-dependent data can present number of problems; even the most recent methods encounter great difficulties. For the GaN-based HEMT structures which have lower mobilities and larger effective masses than that of GaAs-based counterparts, these difficulties become more prominent. In this study, we describe a simple method for magnetotransport analysis to extract conduction channels successfully for a special case that is commonly encountered: one bulk channel and one two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel. Advantage of this method is mainly its simplicity. The analysis can be done with only two magnetic field-dependent measurements per temperature step. The method is applied to the magnetotransport results of an unintentionally doped AlGaN/AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructure over a temperature range of 29-350K and in a magnetic field range of 0-1.5T (μB<1). The results are then compared with those obtained using a commercial package for these calculations namely: quantitative mobility spectrum analysis (QMSA).

Large zero-field spin splitting in AlGaN/AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructures

This work describes Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) measurements in Al0.22Ga0.78N/AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructures. Our experiments coupled with the analysis of the Hall data at various temperatures confirm the formation of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the AlN/GaN interface. A beating pattern in the SdH oscillations is also observed and attributed to a zero-field spin splitting of the 2DEG first energy subband. The values of the effective spin-orbit coupling parameter and zero-field spin-split energy are estimated and compared with those reported in the literature. We show that zero-field spin-split energy tends to increase with increasing sheet electron density and that our value (12.75 meV) is the largest one reported in the literature for GaN-based heterostructures.

Determination of the LO phonon energy by using electronic and optical methods in AlGaN/GaN

The longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures is determined from temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements and also from Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The Hall effect measurements on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by MOCVD have been carried out as a function of temperature in the range 1.8-275 K at a fixed magnetic field. The IR and Raman spectroscopy measurements have been carried out at room temperature. The experimental data for the temperature dependence of the Hall mobility were compared with the calculated electron mobility. In the calculations of electron mobility, polar optical phonon scattering, ionized impurity scattering, background impurity scattering, interface roughness, piezoelectric scattering, acoustic phonon scattering and dislocation scattering were taken into account at all temperatures. The result is that at low temperatures interface roughness scattering is the dominant scattering mechanism and at high temperatures polar optical phonon scattering is dominant.

Ab initio study of Ru-terminated and Ru-doped armchair graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the effects of ruthenium (Ru) termination and Ru doping on the electronic properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) using first-principles methods. The electronic band structures, geometries, density of states, binding energies, band gap information, and formation energies of related structures are calculated. It is well founded that the electronic properties of the investigated AGNRs are highly influenced by Ru termination and Ru doping. With Ru termination, metallic band structures with quasi-zero-dimensional, one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional density of states (DOS) behavior are obtained in addition to dominant one-dimensional behavior. In contrast to Ru termination, Ru doping introduces small but measurable (12.4 to 89.6 meV) direct or indirect band gaps. These results may present an additional way to produce tunable band gaps in AGNRs.