Probing unintentional Fe impurity incorporation in MOCVD homoepitaxy GaN: Toward GaN vertical power devices

Zhang, Yuxuan; Chen, Zhaoying; Li, Wenbo; Lee, Hyunsoo; Karim, Md Rezaul; Arehart, Aaron R.; Ringel, Steven A.; Rajan, Siddharth; Zhao, Hongping

doi:10.1063/5.0008758

Probing unintentional Fe impurity incorporation in MOCVD homoepitaxy GaN: Toward GaN vertical power devices

Journal Article · Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0008758· OSTI ID:1799131

^[1]; Chen, Zhaoying ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Ringel, Steven A. ^[2]; Rajan, Siddharth ^[2]; ^[3]

The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering; OSTI
The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Unintentional impurity incorporation in GaN drift layers represents a challenging issue that can limit their potential performance in vertical power devices. In this paper, we focus on studying the origins of Fe impurity incorporation in metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) grown GaN materials. Acting as a compensator in n-type GaN drift layers, Fe impurities can reduce the electron mobility in GaN and limit the lowest controllable doping level. Two sources, the sample cleaning process and growth susceptor, were identified as the main mechanisms of Fe incorporation in the MOCVD GaN growth process. It was found that solvent cleaning of the wafer can introduce significant Fe contamination at the growth interface, which would slowly be incorporated into the GaN epilayer, thus causing background Fe impurity as high as 10¹⁷ cm^-3 level. Moreover, the Fe impurity in the coating material on the susceptor can introduce additional Fe impurity during the growth process. Our studies revealed that the Fe impurity level could be significantly suppressed by more than two orders when an alternative cleaning process was used and the susceptor surface was fully covered by substrates. Characterization of the Fe impurity concentrations was performed via secondary ion mass spectrometry. The trap level (E_C - 0.57) eV from deep-level transient spectroscopy that had previously been attributed to Fe confirmed the carrier compensation effect from Fe. Room temperature Hall mobility as high as 1007 cm²/V s was achieved on the MOCVD grown low-Fe GaN. Results from this work will provide guidance for achieving high purity GaN toward high performance GaN vertical power devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0001036

OSTI ID:: 1799131

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1632025

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 127; ISSN 0021-8979

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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