The ternary semiconductor alloy Al0.25Ga0.75N has been analyzed by means of correlated photoluminescence spectroscopy and atom probe tomography (APT). We find that the composition measured by APT is strongly dependent on the surface electric field, leading to erroneous measurements of the alloy composition at high field, due to the different evaporation behaviors of Al and Ga atoms. After showing how a biased measurement of the alloy content leads to inaccurate predictions on the optical properties of the material, we develop a correction procedure which yields consistent transition and localization energies for the alloy photoluminescence.
Ternary semiconductor
alloys based on the A
y
B1–y
C stoichiometry are
widely employed in electronic devices, and their composition plays
a key role in band gap engineering of heterostructures. We have studied
the crucial issue of accuracy in composition measurements of Al
y
Ga1–y
N
and Mg
y
Zn1–y
O alloys using atom probe tomography (APT). The results indicate
a similar behavior for both nitride and oxide systems. A correct site
fraction y is measured at low field conditions, while
Ga and Zn preferentially evaporate at high field, yielding an overestimation
of y. Furthermore, APT data sets exhibit local biases
depending on the distribution of the electrostatic field at the specimen
surface. We estimate the detection efficiencies for each species and
interpret the results through a model describing preferential evaporation
in simple terms.
A two-color GaN-based quantum cascade detector is demonstrated. This photodetector operates simultaneously at a peak wavelength of 1.7 and 1 μm at room temperature without any external voltage. These peaks correspond, respectively, to the e1e2 and e1e3 intersubband absorption of the active GaN quantum well. The extractor has been designed to allow for efficient transfer of electrons from both the e2 and e3 states to the next period. The 1 μm detected wavelength is the shortest value reported for an intersubband semiconductor based detector.
Compositional disorder has important consequences on the optical properties of III-nitride ternary alloys. In AlGaN epilayers and AlGaN-based quantum heterostructures, the potential fluctuations induced by such disorder lead to the localisation of carriers at low temperature, which affects their transition energies. Using the correlations between micro-photoluminescence, scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography we have analysed the optical behaviour of Al 0.25 Ga 0.75 N epilayers and that of GaN/AlGaN quantum wells, and reconstructed in three dimensions the distribution of chemical species with sub-nanometre spatial resolution. These composition maps served as the basis for the effective mass calculation of electrons and holes involved in radiative transitions. Good statistical predictions were subsequently obtained for the above-mentioned transition and localisation energies by establishing a link with their microstructural properties.
We report on the low-temperature growth of heavily Si-doped (>1020 cm−3) n+-type GaN by N-rich ammonia molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with very low bulk resistivity (<4 × 10−4 Ω·cm). This is applied to the realization of regrown ohmic contacts on InAlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors. A low n+-GaN/2 dimensional electron gas contact resistivity of 0.11 Ω·mm is measured, provided an optimized surface preparation procedure, which is shown to be critical. This proves the great potentials of ammonia MBE for the realization of high performance electronic devices.
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