We presented the results of optical and electrical studies of the properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film which was prepared by hot wire method. Using transmittance measurements, the dielectric constant of the a-Si:H was determined. The temperature-dependent conductivity was measured using the two-point probe method in the temperature range 115–326 K. It was shown that the temperature-dependent conductivity can be well explained by the nearest-neighbor hopping conduction and the Efros–Shklovskii variable-range hopping conduction models. A clear transition from the nearest-neighbor hopping conduction mechanism to the Efros–Shklovskii variable-range hopping conduction mechanism was also observed. The transition between two conduction regimes and characteristic hopping temperatures, as well as the complete set of parameters describing the properties of the localized electrons (the localization length, the hopping energy, the hopping distance, the width of the Coulomb gap, and the value of the density of states at the Fermi level) were determined.

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In the present study, we reported the results of the investigation of electrical and optical measurements in Al x Ga 1−x N / GaN heterostructures ͑x = 0.20͒ that were grown by way of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire and SiC substrates with the same buffer structures and similar conditions. We investigated the substrate material effects on the electrical and optical properties of Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N / GaN heterostructures. The related electrical and optical properties of Al x Ga 1−x N / GaN heterostructures were investigated by variable-temperature Hall effect measurements, photoluminescence ͑PL͒, photocurrent, and persistent photoconductivity ͑PPC͒ that in turn illuminated the samples with a blue ͑ = 470 nm͒ light-emitting diode ͑LED͒ and thereby induced a persistent increase in the carrier density and two-dimensional electron gas ͑2DEG͒ electron mobility. In sample A ͑Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N / GaN/ sapphire͒, the carrier density increased from 7.59ϫ 10 12 to 9.9ϫ 10 12 cm −2 via illumination at 30 K. On the other hand, in sample B ͑Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N / GaN/ SiC͒, the increments in the carrier density were larger than those in sample A, in which it increased from 7.62ϫ 10 12 to 1.23ϫ 10 13 cm −2 at the same temperature. The 2DEG mobility increased from 1.22ϫ 10 4 to 1.37ϫ 10 4 cm −2 / V s for samples A and B, in which 2DEG mobility increments occurred from 3.83ϫ 10 3 to 5.47ϫ 10 3 cm −2 / V s at 30 K. The PL results show that the samples possessed a strong near-band-edge exciton luminescence line at around 3.44 and 3.43 eV for samples A and B, respectively. The samples showed a broad yellow band spreading from 1.80 to 2.60 eV with a peak maximum at 2.25 eV with a ratio of a near-band-edge excitation peak intensity up to a deep-level emission peak intensity ratio that were equal to 3 and 1.8 for samples A and B, respectively. Both of the samples that were illuminated with three different energy photon PPC decay behaviors can be well described by a stretched-exponential function and relaxation time constant as well as a decay exponent ␤ that changes with the substrate type. The energy barrier for the capture of electrons in the 2DEG channel via the deep-level impurities ͑DX-like centers͒ in AlGaN for the Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N / GaN/sapphire and Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N / GaN/ SiC heterojunction samples are 343 and 228 meV, respectively. The activation energy for the thermal capture of an electron by the defects ⌬E changed with the substrate materials. Our results show that the substrate material strongly affects the electrical and optical properties of Al 0.20 Ga 0.80 N/GaN heterostructures. These results can be explained with the differing degrees of the lattice mismatch between the grown layers and substrates.

Hall effect measurements on undoped Al 0.25 Ga 0.75 N/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 Al 0.25 Ga 0.75 N/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. Al 0.25 Ga 0.75 N/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 transport properties of high mobility AlGaN/AlN/GaN and high sheet electron density AlInN/ AlN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas ͑2DEG͒ heterostructures were studied. The samples were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on c-plane sapphire substrates. The room temperature electron mobility was measured as 1700 cm 2 / V s along with 8.44ϫ 10 12 cm −2 electron density, which resulted in a two-dimensional sheet resistance of 435 ⍀ / ᮀ for the Al 0.2 Ga 0.8 N / AlN/ GaN heterostructure. The sample designed with an Al 0.88 In 0.12 N barrier exhibited very high sheet electron density of 4.23ϫ 10 13 cm −2 with a corresponding electron mobility of 812 cm 2 / V s at room temperature. A record two-dimensional sheet resistance of 182 ⍀ / ᮀ was obtained in the respective sample. In order to understand the observed transport properties, various scattering mechanisms such as acoustic and optical phonons, interface roughness, and alloy disordering were included in the theoretical model that was applied to the temperature dependent mobility data. It was found that the interface roughness scattering in turn reduces the room temperature mobility of the Al 0.88 In 0.12 N / AlN/ GaN heterostructure. The observed high 2DEG density was attributed to the larger polarization fields that exist in the sample with an Al 0.88 In 0.12 N barrier layer. From these analyses, it can be argued that the AlInN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors ͑HEMTs͒, after further optimization of the growth and design parameters, could show better transistor performance compared to AlGaN/AlN/GaN based HEMTs.