Contribution of alloy clustering to limiting the two-dimensional electron gas mobility in AlGaN/GaN and InAlN/GaN heterostructures: Theory and experiment

Ahmadi, Elaheh; Chalabi, Hamidreza; Kaun, Stephen W.; Shivaraman, Ravi; Speck, James S.; Mishra, Umesh K.

doi:10.1063/1.4896967

Contribution of alloy clustering to limiting the two-dimensional electron gas mobility in AlGaN/GaN and InAlN/GaN heterostructures: Theory and experiment

Journal Article · Thu Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896967· OSTI ID:1369751

Ahmadi, Elaheh ^[1]; Chalabi, Hamidreza ^[2]; Kaun, Stephen W. ^[1]; Shivaraman, Ravi ^[1]; Speck, James S. ^[1]; Mishra, Umesh K. ^[1]

Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

The influence of alloy clustering on fluctuations in the ground state energy of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in AlGaN/GaN and InAlN/GaN heterostructures is studied. In this work, we show that because of these fluctuations, alloy clustering degrades the mobility even when the 2DEG wavefunction does not penetrate the alloy barrier unlike alloy disorder scattering. A comparison between the results obtained for AlGaN/GaN and InAlN/GaN heterostructures shows that alloy clustering limits the 2DEG mobility to a greater degree in InAlN/GaN heterostructures. Lastly, our study also reveals that the inclusion of an AlN interlayer increases the limiting mobility from alloy clustering. Moreover, Atom probe tomography is used to demonstrate the random nature of the fluctuations in the alloy composition.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001009

OSTI ID:: 1369751

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 22305752

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 116; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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