Evolution of AlGaN deep level defects as a function of alloying and compositional grading and resultant impact on electrical conductivity

Armstrong, Andrew M.; Allerman, Andrew A.

doi:10.1063/1.4996237

Title: Evolution of AlGaN deep level defects as a function of alloying and compositional grading and resultant impact on electrical conductivity

Journal Article · Mon Jul 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4996237· OSTI ID:1374750

Armstrong, Andrew M. ^[1]; Allerman, Andrew A. ^[1]

Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

AlGaN:Si epilayers with uniform Al compositions of 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90% were grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy along with a compositionally graded, unintentionally doped (UID) AlGaN epilayer with the Al composition varying linearly between 80% and 100%. The resistivity of AlGaN:Si with a uniform composition increased significantly for the Al content of 80% and greater, whereas the graded UID-AlGaN film exhibited resistivity equivalent to 60% and 70% AlGaN:Si owing to polarization-induced doping. Deep level defect studies of both types of AlGaN epilayers were performed to determine why the electronic properties of uniform-composition AlGaN:Si degraded with increased Al content, while the electronic properties of graded UID-AlGaN did not. The deep level density of uniform-composition AlGaN:Si increased monotonically and significantly with the Al mole fraction. Conversely, graded-UID AlGaN had the lowest deep level density of all the epilayers despite containing the highest Al composition. These findings indicate that Si doping is an impetus for point defect incorporation in AlGaN that becomes stronger with the increasing Al content. However, the increase in deep level density with the Al content in uniform-composition AlGaN:Si was small compared to the increase in resistivity. This implies that the primary cause for increasing resistivity in AlGaN:Si with the increasing Al mole fraction is not compensation by deep levels but rather increasing activation energy for the Si dopant. As a result, the graded UID-AlGaN films maintained low resistivity because they do not rely on thermal ionization of Si dopants.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1374750

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1372512

Report Number(s):: SAND-2017-8155J; 655833

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 4; ISSN 0003-6951

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 7 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (29)

Al0 .3Ga0.7N PN diode with breakdown voltage >1600 V Armstrong, A. M.; King, M. P.; Kaplar, R. J. Electronics Letters, Vol. 52, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2016.1280	journal	July 2016
Hybrid functional calculations of $D X$ centers in AlN and GaN Gordon, L.; Lyons, J. L.; Janotti, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 89, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.085204	journal	February 2014
Evidence for nonlinear macroscopic polarization in III–V nitride alloy heterostructures Fiorentini, Vincenzo; Bernardini, Fabio; Ambacher, Oliver Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 80, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1448668	journal	February 2002
High carrier concentration in high Al-composition AlGaN-channnel HEMTs Hashimoto, Shin; Akita, Katsushi; Yamamoto, Yoshiyuki physica status solidi (c), Vol. 9, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssc.201100289	journal	November 2011
Realization of wide electron slabs by polarization bulk doping in graded III–V nitride semiconductor alloys Jena, Debdeep; Heikman, Sten; Green, Daniel Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1526161	journal	December 2002
Deep impurity transitions involving cation vacancies and complexes in AlGaN alloys Nam, K. B.; Nakarmi, M. L.; Lin, J. Y. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 86, Issue 22, Article No. 222108 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1943489	journal	May 2005
An AlN/Al _0.85 Ga _0.15 N high electron mobility transistor Baca, Albert G.; Armstrong, Andrew M.; Allerman, Andrew A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4959179	journal	July 2016
An assessment of wide bandgap semiconductors for power devices Hudgins, J. L.; Simin, G. S.; Santi, E. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 18, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2003.810840	journal	May 2003
Hybrid functional study of Si and O donors in wurtzite AlN Silvestri, Leonardo; Dunn, Kerry; Prawer, Steven Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3641861	journal	September 2011
Theory of the Atomic and Electronic Structure of $DX$ Centers in GaAs and ${Al}_{x} {Ga}_{1 - x} As$ Alloys Chadi, D. J.; Chang, K. J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 61, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.873	journal	August 1988
Photocapacitance study of bulk deep levels in ZnSe grown by molecular-beam epitaxy Hierro, A.; Kwon, D.; Ringel, S. A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 87, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.371933	journal	January 2000
AlGaN/GaN polarization-doped field-effect transistor for microwave power applications Rajan, Siddharth; Xing, Huili; DenBaars, Steve Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1652254	journal	March 2004
Energy band bowing parameter in AlxGa1−xN alloys Yun, Feng; Reshchikov, Michael A.; He, Lei Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1508420	journal	October 2002
Ni/Au Schottky diodes on AlxGa1-xN (0.7<x<1) grown on AlN single crystal substrates Xie, Jinqiao; Mia, Seiji; Dalmau, Rafael physica status solidi (c), Vol. 8, Issue 7-8 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssc.201001009	journal	June 2011
Polarization effects, surface states, and the source of electrons in AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors Ibbetson, J. P.; Fini, P. T.; Ness, K. D. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.126940	journal	July 2000
Intrinsic limitations to the doping of wide-gap semiconductors Walukiewicz, W. Physica B: Condensed Matter, Vol. 302-303 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-4526(01)00417-3	journal	January 2001
Stable and metastable Si negative-U centers in AlGaN and AlN Trinh, Xuan Thang; Nilsson, Daniel; Ivanov, Ivan G. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4900409	journal	October 2014
Polarization-induced electrical conductivity in ultra-wide band gap AlGaN alloys Armstrong, Andrew M.; Allerman, Andrew A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4969062	journal	November 2016
AlN/AlGaN HEMTs on AlN substrate for stable high-temperature operation Yafune, N.; Akita, K.; Hashimoto, S. Electronics Letters, Vol. 50, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2013.2846	journal	January 2014
Direct determination of the silicon donor ionization energy in homoepitaxial AlN from photoluminescence two-electron transitions Neuschl, B.; Thonke, K.; Feneberg, M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4821183	journal	September 2013
Growth temperature dependence of Si doping efficiency and compensating deep level defect incorporation in Al _0.7 Ga _0.3 N Armstrong, Andrew M.; Moseley, Michael W.; Allerman, Andrew A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4920926	journal	May 2015
Deep donor levels ( D X centers) in III‐V semiconductors Mooney, P. M. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 67, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.345628	journal	February 1990
Impacts of Si-doping and resultant cation vacancy formation on the luminescence dynamics for the near-band-edge emission of Al _0.6 Ga _0.4 N films grown on AlN templates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy Chichibu, S. F.; Miyake, H.; Ishikawa, Y. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4807906	journal	June 2013
Modeling of high composition AlGaN channel high electron mobility transistors with large threshold voltage Bajaj, Sanyam; Hung, Ting-Hsiang; Akyol, Fatih Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4905323	journal	December 2014
The influence of Al composition on point defect incorporation in AlGaN Henry, T. A.; Armstrong, A.; Allerman, A. A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3679681	journal	January 2012
Electron mobility in graded AlGaN alloys Rajan, Siddharth; DenBaars, Steven P.; Mishra, Umesh K. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2165190	journal	January 2006
High Critical Electric Field Exceeding 8 MV/cm Measured Using an AlGaN p – i – n Vertical Conducting Diode on n -SiC Substrate Nishikawa, Atsushi; Kumakura, Kazuhide; Makimoto, Toshiki Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 4B https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.46.2316	journal	April 2007
High Al Composition AlGaN-Channel High-Electron-Mobility Transistor on AlN Substrate Tokuda, Hirokuni; Hatano, Maiko; Yafune, Norimasa Applied Physics Express, Vol. 3, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1143/APEX.3.121003	journal	December 2010
Progress on n-type doping of AlGaN alloys on AlN single crystal substrates for UV optoelectronic applications Collazo, Ramón; Mita, Seiji; Xie, Jinqiao physica status solidi (c), Vol. 8, Issue 7-8 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssc.201000964	journal	May 2011

Cited By (2)

Visible-blind and solar-blind detection induced by defects in AlGaN high electron mobility transistors Armstrong, Andrew M.; Klein, Brianna; Allerman, Andrew A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4997605	journal	March 2018
Mapping Charge Recombination and the Effect of Point Defect Insertion in Gallium Arsenide Nanowire Heterojunctions Zutter, Brian; Kim, Hyunseok; Hubbard, William arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2010.05140	preprint	January 2020

Similar Records

Polarization-induced electrical conductivity in ultra-wide band gap AlGaN alloys

Journal Article · Mon Nov 28 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1374750

Armstrong, Andrew M.; Allerman, Andrew A.

MBE growth and donor doping of coherent ultrawide bandgap AlGaN alloy layers on single-crystal AlN substrates

Journal Article · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1374750

Lee, Kevin; Page, Ryan; Protasenko, Vladimir; +4 more

Collaborative atomic-scale design, analysis, and nanofabrication for record breaking, single-crystal Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Te solar cell arrays

Technical Report · Fri Jun 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · OSTI ID:1374750

Zubia, David; Zhou, Xiaowang

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Title: Evolution of AlGaN deep level defects as a function of alloying and compositional grading and resultant impact on electrical conductivity

Citation Formats

References (29)

Cited By (2)

Similar Records

Related Subjects