The effect of buried AlxGa1-xN isolating layers on the transport properties of GaN deposited on sapphire substrate by molecular beam epitaxy using NH3

It is believed that the highly dislocated region near the GaN/sapphire interface is a degenerate layer. In this paper a direct evidence for such a proposal is presented. By inserting a buried AlxGa1-xN (x > 0.5) isolating layer to separate the interface region from the bulk region, the background electron concentration can be significantly reduced, while care must be taken to guarantee that there is no degrading of Hall mobility when choosing the thickness of the isolating layer. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The growth of an AlGaN/GaN modulation-doped heterostructure by NH3 source molecular beam epitaxy

Using NH3 cracked on the growing surface as the nitrogen precursor, an AlGaN/GaN modulation-doped (MD) heterostructure without a buffer layer was grown on a nitridated sapphire substrate in a home-made molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. Though the Al composition is as low as 0.036, as deduced from photoluminescence (PL) measurements, the AlGaN barrier layer can be an efficient carrier supplier for the formation of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the heterointerface. The 2DEG characteristics are verified by the variable temperature Hall measurements down to 7 K. Using a parallel conduction model, we estimate the actual mobility of the 2DEG to be 1100 cm(2)/V s as the sheet carrier density to be 1.0 x 10(12) cm(-2). Our results show that the AlGaN/GaN system is very suitable for the fabrication of high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Properties of GaN epilayers with various growth conditions grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy

GaN epilayers on sapphire (0001) substrates were grown by the gas source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE) method using ammonia (NH,) gas as the nitrogen source. Properties of gallium nitride (GaN) epilayers grown under various growth conditions were investigated. The growth rate is up to 0.6 mu m/h in our experiments. Cathodoluminescence, photoluminescence and Hall measurements were used to characterize the films. It was shown that the growth parameters have a significant influence on the GaN properties. The yellow luminescence was enhanced at higher growth temperature. And a blue emission which maybe related to defects or impurity was observed. Although the emission at 3.31 eV can be suppressed by a low-temperature buffer layer, a high-quality GaN epilayer can be obtained without the buffer layer. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Fabrication of GaN epitaxial films on Al2O3/Si (001) substrates

Single crystal GaN films of hexagonal modification have been fabricated on Al2O3/Si (001) substrates via a low pressure metalorganic chemical deposition (LP-MOCVD) method. The full width at half-maximum of (0002) X-ray diffraction peak for the GaN film 1.1 mu m thick was 72 arcmin. and the mosaic structure of the film was the main cause of broadening to the X-ray diffraction peak. Al room temperature, the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of GaN exhibited near band edge emission peaking at 365 nm.

AlGaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN DH-HEMTs structure with an AlN interlayer grown by MOCVD

A novel AlGaN/GaN/GaN/GaN double heterojunction high electron mobility transistors (DH-HEMTS) structure with an AlN interlayer on sapphire substrate has been grown by MOCVD. The structure featured a 6-10 nm In0.1Ga0.9N layer inserted between the GaN channel and GaN buffer. And wer also inserted one ultrathin. AlN interlayer into the Al/GaN/GaN interface, which significantly enhanced the mobility of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) existed in the GaN channel. AFM result of this structure shows a good surface morphology and a low dislocation density, with the root-mean-square roughness (RMS) of 0.196 nm for a scan area of 5 mu m x 5 mu m. Temperature dependent Hall measurement was performed on this sample, and a mobility as high as 1950 cm(2)/Vs at room temperature (RT) was obtained. The sheet carrier density was 9.89 x10(12) cm(2), and average sheet resistance of 327 Omega/sq was achieved. The mobility obtained in this paper is about 50% higher than other results of similar structures which have been reported. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The influence of substrate nucleation on HVPE-grown GaN thick films - art. no. 684105

Thick GaN films were grown on sapphire in a home-made vertical HVPE reactor. Effect of nucleation treatments on the properties of GaN films was investigated, including the nitridation of sapphire, low temperature GaN buffer and MOCVD-template. Various material characterization techniques, including AFM, SEM, XRD, CL and PL have been used to assess these GaN epitaxial films. It was found that the surface of sapphire after high temperature nitridation was flat and showed high density nucleation centers. In addition, smooth Ga-polarity surface of epitaxial layer can be obtained on the nitridation sapphire placed in air for several days due to polarity inversion. This may be caused by the atoms re-arrangement because of oxidation. The roughness of N-polarity film was caused by the huge inverted taper domains, which can penetrate up to the surface. The low temperature GaN buffer gown at 650 degrees C is favorable for subsequent epitaxial film, which had narrow FWHM of 307 arcsec. The epitaxial growth on MOCVD-template directly came into quasi-2D growth mode due to enough nucleation centers, and high quality GaN films were acquired with the values of the FWHM of 141 arcsec for (002) reflections. After etching in boiled KOH, that the total etch-pit density was only 5 x 106 cm(-2) illustrated high quality of the thick film on template. The photoluminescence spectrum of GaN film on the MOCVD-template showed the narrowest line-width of the band edge emission in comparison with other two growth modes.

AlGaN/AlN/GaN/InGaN/GaN DH-HEMTs with improved mobility grown by MOCVD

AlGaN/AlN/GaN/InGaN/GaN double heterojunction high electron mobility transistors (DH-HEMTs) structures with improved buffer isolation have been investigated. The structures were grown by MOCVD on sapphire substrate. AFM result of this structure shows a good surface morphology with the root-mean-square roughness (RMS) of 0.196 nm for a scan area of 5 mu mx5 mu m. A mobility as high as 1950 cm(2)/Vs with the sheet carrier density of 9.89x10(12) cm(-2) was obtained, which was about 50% higher than other results of similar structures which have been reported. Average sheet resistance of 327 Omega/sq was achieved. The HEMTs device using the materials was fabricated, and a maximum drain current density of 718.5 mA/mm, an extrinsic transconductance of 248 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency of 16 GHz and a maximum frequency of oscillation 35 GHz were achieved.

Long-Wavelength Emission InAs Quantum Dots Grown on InGaAs Metamorphic Buffers

In this work, InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown on a linear graded InGaAs metamorphic buffer layer by molecular beam epitaxy have been investigated. The growth of the metamorphic buffer layers was carefully optimized, yielding a smooth surface with a minimum root mean square of roughness of less than 0.98 nm as measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). InAs QDs were then grown on the buffer layers, and their emission wavelength at room-temperature is 1.49 mu m as measured by photoluminescence (PL). The effects of post-growth rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the optical properties of the InAs QDs were investigated. After the RTA, the PL peak of the QDs was blue-shifted and the full width at half maximum decreased.

High responsivity ultraviolet photodetector based on crack-free GaN on Si (111)

A Schottky-based metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector is fabricated on 1 mu m-thick, crack-free GaN on Si (I 11) substrate using an optimized AlxGal-xN/AlN complex buffer layer. It exhibits a high responsivity of 4600A/W at 366nm which may be due to both a crack-free sample and high internal gain. The relationship between responsivity and bias voltage is also investigated. The experiment results indicate that the responsivity increases with the bias voltage and shows a tendency to saturate. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Tuning of emission wavelength of InAs/GaAs quantum dots sandwiched by combination layers

We investigate about controlling of photoluminescence (PL) wavelengths of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) sandwiched with combination strained-buffer layer (CSBL) and combination strained-reducing layer (CSRL). The emission peak position of QDs is red-shifted to 1.37 mu m. The density of the QDs is increased to 1.17x10(10) cm(-2). It is indicated that optical properties of QDs could be improved by optimizing of the buffer and covering layers for the QDs. These results may provide a new way to further developing GaAs-based 1.3 mu m light sources.

A low power integrated CMOS transmitter for BCI system

The prototype wafer of a low power integrated CMOS Transmitter for short-range biotelemetry application has been designed and fabricated, which is prospective to be implanted in the human brain to transfer the extracted neural information to the external computer. The transmitter consists of five parts, a bandgap current regulator, a ring oscillator, a buffer, a modulator and a power transistor. High integration and low power are the most distinct criteria for such an implantable integrated circuit. The post-simulation results show that under a 3.3 V power supply the transmitter provides 100.1 MHz half-wave sinusoid current signal to drive the off-chip antenna, the output peak current range is -0.155 mA similar to 1.250 mA, and on-chip static power dissipation is low to 0.374 mW. All the performances of the transmitter satisfy the demands of wireless real-time BCI system for neural signals recording and processing.

Defect influence on luminescence efficiency of GaN-based LEDs

Wafers with normal light-emitting diode structure were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition system. The pressure and temperature were varied during growth of buffer layer in order to grow different types of epilayers. The cathodoluminescence results show that the interface distortion of quantum well plays an important role in radiant efficiency. The electroluminescence detections indicate that the dislocations also influence the external quantum efficiency by lowering the electron injection efficiency. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heterojunction solar cells with n-type nanocrystalline silicon emitters on p-type c-Si wafers

Hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) n-layers have been used to prepare heterojunction solar cells on flat p-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers. The nc-Si:H n-layers were deposited by radio-frequency (RF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and characterized using Raman spectroscopy, optical transmittance and activation energy of dark-conductivity. The nc-Si:H n-layers obtained comprise fine grained nanocrystallites embedded in amorphous matrix, which have a wider bandgap and a smaller activation energy. Heterojunction solar cells incorporated with the nc-Si n-layer were fabricated using configuration of Ag (100 nm)/1T0 (80 nm)/n-nc-Si:H (15 nm)/buffer a-Si:H/p-c-Si (300 mu m)/Al (200 nm), where a very thin intrinsic a-Si:H buffer layer was used to passivate the p-c-Si surface, followed by a hydrogen plasma treatment prior to the deposition of the thin nanocrystalline layer. The results show that heterojunction solar cells subjected to these surface treatments exhibit a remarkable increase in the efficiency, up to 14.1% on an area of 2.43 cm(2). (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Valence band offset of MgO/TiO2 (rutile) heterojunction measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The valence band offset (VBO) of MgO/TiO2 (rutile) heterojunction has been directly measured by Xray photoelectron spectroscopy. The VBO of the heterojunction is determined to be 1.6 +/- 0.3 eV and the conduction band offset (CBO) is deduced to be 3.2 +/- 0.3 eV, indicating that the heterojunction exhibits a type-I band alignment. These large values are sufficient for MgO to act as tunneling barriers in TiO2 based devices. The accurate determination of the valence and conduction band offsets is important for use of MgO as a buffer layer in TiO2 based field-effect transistors and dye-sensitized solar cells.

Evaluating the effect of dislocation on the photovoltaic performance of metamorphic tandem solar cells

The photovoltaic conversion efficiency for monolithic GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction cell with various bandgap combination (300 suns, AM1.5d) was theoretically calculated. An impressive improvement on conversion efficiency was observed for a bandgap combination of 1.708, 1.194, and 0.67 eV. A theoretical investigation was carried out on the effect of dislocation on the metamorphic structure's efficiency by regarding dislocation as minority-carrier recombination center. The results showed that only when dislocation density was less than 1.6x10(6) cm(-2), can this metamorphic combination exhibit its efficiency advantage over the fully-matched combination. In addition, we also briefly evaluated the lattice misfit dependence of the dislocation density for a group of metamorphic triple-junction system, and used it as guidance for the choice of the proper cell structure.