We have studied the Mg doping of cubic GaN grown by plasma-assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy (PA-MBE) over GaAs (001) substrates. In particular, we concentrated on conditions to obtain heavy p-type doping to achieve low resistance films which can be used in bipolar devices. We simulated the Mg-doped GaN transport properties by density functional theory (DFT) to compare with the experimental data. Mg-doped GaN cubic epitaxial layers grown under optimized conditions show a free hole carrier concentration with a maximum value of 6 × 1019 cm−3 and mobility of 3 cm2/Vs. Deep level transient spectroscopy shows the presence of a trap with an activation energy of 114 meV presumably associated with nitrogen vacancies, which could be the cause for the observed self-compensation behavior in heavily Mg-doped GaN involving Mg-VN complexes. Furthermore, valence band analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy revealed an Mg ionization energy of about 100 meV, which agrees quite well with the value of 99.6 meV obtained by DFT. Our results show that the cubic phase is a suitable alternative to generate a high free hole carrier concentration for GaN.
n-GaN/ AlN heterostructures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111) substrates. The GaN films were n-type doped with silicon and the effect of doping concentration on the structural and optical properties was studied. Si doping promotes a reduction of disloca-tion density as revealed by X-ray data analysis and Transmission Electron Microscopy. Fur-thermore, a decrease in the yellow band measured by Photoluminescence Spectroscopy was observed when silicon doping concentration was increased up to 1.7×1019 atoms/cm3. A particular mosaic structure was induced by the Si-doping as inferred from Rutherford Backscattering measurements. The crystal quality shows a small degradation for very heavi-ly doped samples (1.3×1020 atoms/cm3).
Cubic GaN/GaAs (001) heterostructures were grown by RF-plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy with different GaN nucleation temperatures. The heterostructures were studied by an open cell configuration of a photoacoustic experiment to obtain the effective thermal diffusivity (α) of the composite, which presented values varying from 14 to 28mm2/s. Also, a two-layer model was used in order to obtain the interfacial thermal conductivity (η), revealing values from 5 to 35W/cm2 K. Both α and η presented higher values for cubic GaN films grown with higher nucleation temperatures. The crystalline quality of the samples, studied with high resolution x-ray diffraction and photoluminescence measurements, showed that the increase in the nucleation temperature produced films with fewer defects, implying a dependence between the interfacial thermal properties and the bulk crystalline quality. This variation of η can be associated with phonon scattering due to disorder at the interface region. The results provide an important understanding of how the growth temperature of the nucleation layer can affect the quality and the properties of the cubic GaN.
The self-assembling of nanovoids with a precisely controlled depth at the GaN/GaAs interface is reported and their formation mechanism discussed. During the very early stages of GaN growth by molecular beam epitaxy over GaAs(100) misoriented substrates, nano-pits are formed by chemical reactions of gallium and nitrogen with a GaAs sacrificial layer. The GaAs sacrificial layer is grown on top of a GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice that is used to efficiently stop the in-depth etch and to promote lateral etching. Thus, a nanostructure of wide voids and pedestals is self-assembled and confined at the interface. As an application, the lift-off of GaN epilayers from the substrate was carried out successfully, a fact that opens up the applicability of this process in other semiconductor systems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.