AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) fabricated on a heterostructure grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using analternative method of carbon (C) doping the buffer are characterized. C-doping is achieved by using propane as precursor, as compared to tuningthe growth process parameters to control C-incorporation from the gallium precursor. This approach allows for optimization of the GaN growthconditions without compromising material quality to achieve semi-insulating properties. The HEMTs are evaluated in terms of isolation anddispersion. Good isolation with OFF-state currents of 2 ' 10%6A/mm, breakdown fields of 70V/μm, and low drain induced barrier lowering of0.13mV/V are found. Dispersive effects are examined using pulsed current–voltage measurements. Current collapse and knee walkout effectslimit the maximum output power to 1.3W/mm. With further optimization of the C-doping profile and GaN material quality this method should offer aversatile approach to decrease dispersive effects in GaN HEMTs.

The lattice parameters and residual strain of homo- and heteroepitaxial AlN layers grown at elevated process temperatures (1200-1400 °C) by hot-wall MOCVD are studied. The average lattice parameters for the homoepitaxial AlN layers grown on true bulk AlN substrates are determined to be a = 3.1113 ± 0.0001 Å and c = 4.9808 ± 0.0001 Å are discussed in relation to previously published data. The lattice parameters measured from biaxially strained AlN layers grown on SiC are used to determine the biaxial strain relaxation coefficient to be R_B = -0.556 ± 0.021. The structural and optical quality of the heteroepitaxial layers improved with increasing layer thickness and at a thickness of 1.3 μm, crack-free AlN of high crystalline quality with full widths at half maximum of the (0002) and (1012) rocking curves of 25 arc sec and 372 arc sec, respectively, were obtained. Tensile strain developed with increasing layer thickness despite the higher crystalline quality of these layers. This can be explained by the thermal mismatch between the AlN and SiC in combination with island coalescence at the initial stage and/or during the growth.

Chlorinated chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chemistry for growth of homoepitaxial layers of silicon carbide (SiC) has paved the way for very thick epitaxial layers in short deposition time as well as novel crystal growth processes for SiC. Here, we explore the possibility to also use a brominated chemistry for SiC CVD by using HBr as additive to the standard SiC CVD precursors. We find that brominated chemistry leads to the same high material quality and control of material properties during deposition as chlorinated chemistry and that the growth rate is on average 10 % higher for a brominated chemistry compared to chlorinated chemistry. Brominated and chlorinated SiC CVD also show very similar gas phase chemistries in thermochemical modelling. This study thus argues that brominated chemistry is a strong alternative for SiC CVD since the deposition rate can be increased with preserved material quality. The thermochemical modelling also suggest that the currently used chemical mechanism for halogenated SiC CVD might need to be revised.

The creation of a semi insulating (SI) buffer layer in AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) devices is crucial for preventing a current path beneath the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). In this investigation, we evaluate the use of a gaseous carbon gas precursor, propane, for creating a SI GaN buffer layer in a HEMT structure. The carbon doped profile, using propane gas, is a two stepped profile with a high carbon doping (1.5 x 10(18) cm(-3)) epitaxial layer closest to the substrate and a lower doped layer (3 x 10(16) cm(-3)) closest to the 2DEG channel. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry measurement shows a uniform incorporation versus depth, and no memory effect from carbon doping can be seen. The high carbon doping (1.5 x 10(18) cm(-3)) does not influence the surface morphology, and a roughness root-mean-square value of 0.43 nm is obtained from Atomic Force Microscopy. High resolution X-ray diffraction measurements show very sharp peaks and no structural degradation can be seen related to the heavy carbon doped layer. HEMTs are fabricated and show an extremely low drain induced barrier lowering value of 0.1 mV/V, demonstrating an excellent buffer isolation. The carbon doped GaN buffer layer using propane gas is compared to samples using carbon from the trimethylgallium molecule, showing equally low leakage currents, demonstrating the capability of growing highly resistive buffer layers using a gaseous carbon source. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

The creation of a semi-insulating (SI) buffer layer in AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices is crucial for preventing a current path beneath the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Here we evaluate the use of a carbon precursor, propane, for creating a SI GaN buffer layer. The carbon doping profile obtained from SIMS measurement shows a very uniform incorporation versus depth and no significant memory effect from carbon doping is seen, allowing for the creation of a very abrupt profile. The high carbon doping (1.5×1018 cm-3) does not influence the surface morphology. HRXRD ω rocking curve showed a FWHM of 200 arcsec of the (0002) and 261 arcsec for (10-12) reflection of the GaN, respectively. HEMT devices were processed on the epitaxial layers. An extremely low drain induced barrier lowering value of 0.1 mV/V was measured for a HEMT with a gate length of 0.2 𝜇m. This demonstrates the capability of growing a highly resistive buffer layer using intentional carbon doping.

We have studied the silicon donor behavior in intentionally silicon doped Al_xGa_1-xN (0.63≤x≤1) grown by hot-wall metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Efficient silicon doping was obtained for lower Al contents whereas the conductivity drastically reduces for AlGaN layers with Al content in the range x~0.84-1. Degradation of the structural quality and compensation by residual O and C impurities were ruled out as possible explanations for the reduced conductivity. By combining frequency dependent capacitance-voltage and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements we show that the Si donors are electrically active and that the reduced conductivity can be explained by the increased activation energy caused by the sharp deepening of the Si DX^– state..

A high mobility of 2250 cm²/V·s of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition-grown AlGaN/GaN heterostructure was demonstrated. The mobility enhancement was a result of better electron confinement due to a sharp AlGaN/GaN interface, as confirmed by scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis, not owing to the formation of a traditional thin AlN exclusion layer. Moreover, we found that the electron mobility in the sharp-interface heterostructures can sustain above 2000 cm²/V·s for a wide range of 2DEG densities. Finally, it is promising that the sharp-interface AlGaN/GaN heterostructure would enable low contact resistance fabrication, less impurity-related scattering, and trapping than the AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure, as the high-impurity-contained AlN is removed.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have been demonstrated viable for the emission of single photons on demand during the past decade. However, the synthesis of QDs emitting photons with pre-defined and deterministic polarization vectors has proven arduous. The access of linearly-polarized photons is essential for various applications. In this report, a novel concept to directly generate linearly-polarized photons is presented. This concept is based on InGaN QDs grown on top of elongated GaN hexagonal pyramids, by which predefined orientations herald the polarization vectors of the emitted photons from the QDs. This growth scheme should allow fabrication of ultracompact arrays of photon emitters, with a controlled polarization direction for each individual QD emitter.

The high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN, x > 0.70, is the principal wide-band-gap alloy system to enable the development of light-emitting diodes operating at the short wavelengths in the deep-ultraviolet, λ < 280 nm. The development of the deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV LEDs) is driven by the social and market impact expected from their implementation in portable units for water disinfection and based on the damaging effect of the deep-ultraviolet radiation on the DNA of various microorganisms. Internationally, intense research and technology developments occur in the past few years, yet, the external quantum efficiency of the DUV LEDs is typically below 1%.

One of the main material issues in the development of the DUV LEDs is the achievement of n- and ptype doped layers of high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN with low resistivity, which is required for the electrical pumping of the diodes. The doping process, however, becomes significantly more complex with increasing the Al content and the resistivity value can be as high as 10¹-10² Ω cm for n-type AlN doped by silicon, and 10⁷-10⁸ Ω cm for p-type AlN doped by magnesium.

The present study is therefore focused on gaining a better understanding of the constraints in the doping process of the high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN alloys, involving mainly the silicon dopant. For this purpose, the epitaxial growth of the high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN and AlN by the implementation of the distinct hot-wall MOCVD is developed in order to achieve layers of good structural and morphological properties, and with low content of residual impurities, particularly oxygen and carbon. Substitutional point defects such as O_N and C_N may have a profound impact on the doping by their involvement in effects of n-type carrier compensation. The process temperature can be set from 1000 °C and up to 1400 °C in the present study, which is a principal advantage in order to optimize the material properties of the high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN and AlN. The epitaxial growth of the high-Alcontent Al_xGa_1-xN and AlN is largely performed on 4H-SiC substrates motivated by (i) the lattice mismatch of ~ 1% along the basal plane (the smallest among other available substrates including Si and sapphire), (ii) the good thermal conductivity of 3.7 W cm^-1 K^-1, which is essential to minimize the self-heating during the operation of any light-emitting diode, and (iii) the limited access to true-bulk AlN wafers. The Si doping is investigated over a large range of [Si] ~ 1×10¹⁷ cm^-3 - 1×10²⁰ cm^-3. Only the high doping range of [Mg] ~ (1^-3)×10¹⁹ cm-3 is targeted motivated by the large thermal ionization energy of this common acceptor (from 200 meV in GaN to about 630 meV in AlN). The material characterization involves extensive implementation of atomic force microscopy (AFM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), cathodoluminescence (CL), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), capacitancevoltage measurements, as well as measurements of the conductivity of the layers by contactless microwave-based technique. The possibility to perform electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements on the Si-doped high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN is essential in order to establish any effect of self-compensation of the shallow donor state of silicon through the related so-called DX state. The EPR measurements corroborate the study of the incorporation kinetics of silicon and oxygen at various process temperatures and growth rates.

The outcome of this study is accordingly summarized and presents our understanding for (i) the complex impact of silicon and oxygen on the n-type conductivity of Al_0.77Ga_0.23N, which is the alloy composition at which a drastic reduction of the n-type conductivity of high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN is commonly reported (paper 1); (ii) the strain and morphology compliance during the intentional doping by silicon and magnesium, and its correlation with the resistivity in the highly doped layers of Al_0.82Ga_0.18N alloy composition (paper2); (iii) the n-type conductivity of highly-Si-doped Al_0.72Ga_0.28N layers as bound by the process temperature (paper 3); and (iv) the shallow donor or DX behavior of the Si dopant in conductive Al_xGa_1-xN layers, 0.63 ≤ x ≤ 1 (paper 4). It is noted that the measured n-type conductivity in reference layers of Al_0.77Ga_0.23N, alternatively Al_0.72Ga_0.28N, alloy composition is on par with the state-of-the-art values, i.e. ≤ 0.05 Ω cm, and 0.012 Ω cm, respectively. A room-temperature resistivity of 7 kΩ cm is measured in Mg-doped layers of Al_0.85Ga_0.15N alloy composition, which is superior to the state-of-art values (paper 5). The performance of the transport properties of the high-Al-content Al_xGa_1-xN layers is expected to improve with improvement of their material quality. This can be achieved by improvement of the crystalline quality of the AlN-on-SiC template and by the implementation of true-bulk AlN substrates. The AlN heteroepitaxial growth at the process temperatures of 1100-1200 °C is therefore investigated (paper 6). The lattice constants, structural and optical properties of true-bulk, homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial AlN material grown at high process temperatures of up to 1400 °C is further reported (paper 7).

Establishing n- and p- type conductivity via intentional doping in epitaxial layers is fundamental to any semiconductor material system and its relevant device applications. Process parameters such as temperature, precursor gas-flow-rates and pressure may all control intentional doping in metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) of semiconductor materials. The incorporation of impurities such as carbon and oxygen may also be affected by the same process parameters, and the concentration of these impurities has a direct impact on the electrical, optical and thermal properties of epitaxial layers, as has been observed in the MOCVD of technologically-important III-V semiconductor materials such as AlGaAs and GaN.