The characteristic surface morphologies of GaN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under various growth conditions have been investigated. Three growth regimes (one N stable and two Ga stable) are identified on a surface structure diagram (Ga/N ratio versus substrate temperature). The boundary between the N-stable regime (low Ga/N ratios) and the two Ga-stable regimes (high Ga/N ratios) is determined by the growth rate of the films and is constant over the range of substrate temperatures investigated. The boundary between the two Ga-stable regimes (the Ga-droplet regime and the intermediate regime) is determined by the formation of Ga droplets and has an Arrhenius dependence with substrate temperature. The characteristic morphologies of films grown within each of these regimes are investigated using atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. N-stable films have rough, heavily pitted morphologies. Films grown within the intermediate phase have areas of flat surface between large, irregularly shaped pits. The pits observed for films grown within both regimes are found to initiate from threading dislocations and to decrease in density with increasing Ga/N ratio at constant temperature. Ga-stable films, grown within the Ga-droplet regime, exhibit atomically flat surfaces with no pit features. The morphology transitions are associated with changes in the growth kinetics caused by variations in the coverage of the GaN surface by excess Ga.

The formation of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in unintentionally doped AlxGa1−xN/GaN (x⩽0.31) heterostructures grown by rf plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy is investigated. Low-temperature electrical-transport measurements revealed that the two-dimensional electron gas density strongly depends on both the thickness of the AlGaN layer and alloy composition. The experimental results agree very well with the theoretical estimates of the polarization-induced 2DEG concentrations. Low-temperature electron mobility was found to be much higher in the structures with lower electron sheet densities. Interface roughness scattering or alloy disorder scattering are proposed to be responsible for this trend. A maximum mobility of 51 700 cm2/V s (T=13 K) was obtained in the Al0.09Ga0.91N/GaN structure with a two-dimensional electron gas density of 2.23×1012 cm−2.

GaN:Mg layers grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy at 650 °C are investigated. Secondary-ion-mass-spectroscopy measurements reveal uniform Mg doping profiles with very sharp boundaries. The amount of incorporated Mg atoms changes approximately linearly with incident Mg flux. Hall measurements on p-type GaN:Mg layers show that about 1%–2% of all Mg atoms are ionized at room temperature. The hole mobility depends strongly on the hole concentration, varying from μp=24 cm2/V s for p=1.8×1017 cm−3 to μp=7.5 cm2/V s for p=1.4×1018 cm−3. GaN p–n diodes with molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown p regions are analyzed using current–voltage measurements.

High quality AlGaN/GaN heterostructures have been grown by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on n-type GaN templates grown on sapphire by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The unintentionally doped Al0.12Ga0.88N/GaN heterostructure exhibits a 77 K Hall mobility of 14 500 cm2/Vs and a 12 K mobility of 20 000 cm2/Vs (ns=5.0×1012 cm−2). A room temperature mobility of 1860 cm2/Vs (ns=4.8×1012 cm−2) was calculated for the two-dimensional electron gas channel using a two layer model from the measured mobility for the whole structure (template plus heterostructure). Magnetoresistance measurements at 4.2 K showed well-resolved Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations, which began at 2.6 T.

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