Enhanced doping efficiency of ultrawide band gap semiconductors by metal-semiconductor junction assisted epitaxy

Pandey, A.; Liu, X.; Deng, Z.; Shin, W. J.; Laleyan, D. A.; Mashooq, K.; Reid, E. T.; Kioupakis, E.; Bhattacharya, P.; Mi, Z.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.053401

Title: Enhanced doping efficiency of ultrawide band gap semiconductors by metal-semiconductor junction assisted epitaxy

Journal Article · Thu May 09 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physical Review Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.053401· OSTI ID:1527181

Pandey, A. ^[1]; Liu, X. ^[2]; Deng, Z. ^[3]; Shin, W. J. ^[1]; Laleyan, D. A. ^[1]; Mashooq, K. ^[1]; Reid, E. T. ^[1]; Kioupakis, E. ^[3]; Bhattacharya, P. ^[1]; Mi, Z. ^[1]

Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Ultrawide bandgap semiconductors are important for a broad range of electronic and photonic devices, but their practical application has been limited by poor current conduction. Here, we demonstrate that with controlled tuning of the Fermi level by an in situ metal-semiconductor junction during epitaxy, efficient p-type conduction, which was otherwise impossible, can be achieved for large bandgap aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN). During epitaxy, the Fermi level is pinned away from the valence band edge, which fundamentally reduces the formation energy for substitutional Mg-dopant incorporation while simultaneously increasing the formation energy for compensating defects. In this work, we have demonstrated that Mg-doped Al_0.9Ga_0.1N can exhibit free hole concentration 4.5 × 10 ∼17 cm^-3, with a resistivity < 5 Ω · cm, which is nearly three orders of magnitude lower compared to previous reports. Ultraviolet 280-nm light emitting diodes grown using this method exhibited nearly an order of magnitude improvement in external quantum efficiency compared to those grown using conventional molecular beam epitaxy. Such a unique technique can be extended for the epitaxy/synthesis of a broad range of wide bandgap semiconductors to achieve efficient current conduction that was not previously possible.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1807984

OSTI ID:: 1527181

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1511763

Journal Information:: Physical Review Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 5; ISSN 2475-9953

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 18 works

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