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Title: Increasing the mobility and power-electronics figure of merit of AlGaN with atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices

Abstract

Alloy scattering in random AlGaN alloys drastically reduces the electron mobility and, therefore, the power-electronics figure of merit. As a result, Al compositions greater than 75% are required to obtain even a twofold increase in the Baliga figure of merit compared to GaN. However, beyond approximately 80% Al composition, donors in AlGaN undergo the DX transition, which makes impurity doping increasingly more difficult. Moreover, the contact resistance increases exponentially with the increase in Al content, and integration with dielectrics becomes difficult due to the upward shift of the conduction band. Atomically thin superlattices of AlN and GaN, also known as digital alloys, are known to grow experimentally under appropriate growth conditions. These chemically ordered nanostructures could offer significantly enhanced figure of merit compared to their random alloy counterparts due to the absence of alloy scattering, as well as better integration with contact metals and dielectrics. In this work, we investigate the electronic structure and phonon-limited electron mobility of atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices using first-principles calculations based on density-functional and many-body perturbation theory. The bandgap of the atomically thin superlattices reaches 4.8 eV, and the in-plane (out-of-plane) mobility is 369 (452) cm2 V-1s-1. Using the modified Baliga figure of meritmore » that accounts for the dopant ionization energy, here we demonstrate that atomically thin AlN/GaN superlattices with a monolayer sublattice periodicity have the highest modified Baliga figure of merit among several technologically relevant ultra-wide bandgap materials, including random AlGaN, β-Ga2O3, cBN, and diamond.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1979116
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1876942
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0020129; AC02-05CH11231; DEAC0205CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; physics

Citation Formats

Pant, Nick, Lee, Woncheol, Sanders, Nocona, and Kioupakis, Emmanouil. Increasing the mobility and power-electronics figure of merit of AlGaN with atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices. United States: N. p., 2022. Web. doi:10.1063/5.0097963.
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Pant, Nick, Lee, Woncheol, Sanders, Nocona, & Kioupakis, Emmanouil. Increasing the mobility and power-electronics figure of merit of AlGaN with atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0097963
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Pant, Nick, Lee, Woncheol, Sanders, Nocona, and Kioupakis, Emmanouil. Wed . "Increasing the mobility and power-electronics figure of merit of AlGaN with atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0097963. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1979116.
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@article{osti_1979116,
title = {Increasing the mobility and power-electronics figure of merit of AlGaN with atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices},
author = {Pant, Nick and Lee, Woncheol and Sanders, Nocona and Kioupakis, Emmanouil},
abstractNote = {Alloy scattering in random AlGaN alloys drastically reduces the electron mobility and, therefore, the power-electronics figure of merit. As a result, Al compositions greater than 75% are required to obtain even a twofold increase in the Baliga figure of merit compared to GaN. However, beyond approximately 80% Al composition, donors in AlGaN undergo the DX transition, which makes impurity doping increasingly more difficult. Moreover, the contact resistance increases exponentially with the increase in Al content, and integration with dielectrics becomes difficult due to the upward shift of the conduction band. Atomically thin superlattices of AlN and GaN, also known as digital alloys, are known to grow experimentally under appropriate growth conditions. These chemically ordered nanostructures could offer significantly enhanced figure of merit compared to their random alloy counterparts due to the absence of alloy scattering, as well as better integration with contact metals and dielectrics. In this work, we investigate the electronic structure and phonon-limited electron mobility of atomically thin AlN/GaN digital-alloy superlattices using first-principles calculations based on density-functional and many-body perturbation theory. The bandgap of the atomically thin superlattices reaches 4.8 eV, and the in-plane (out-of-plane) mobility is 369 (452) cm2 V-1s-1. Using the modified Baliga figure of merit that accounts for the dopant ionization energy, here we demonstrate that atomically thin AlN/GaN superlattices with a monolayer sublattice periodicity have the highest modified Baliga figure of merit among several technologically relevant ultra-wide bandgap materials, including random AlGaN, β-Ga2O3, cBN, and diamond.},
doi = {10.1063/5.0097963},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 3,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Wed Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
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