Effective approach for accurately calculating individual energy of polar heterojunction interfaces

Abstract

We propose a direct approach for calculating individual energy of polar semiconductor interfaces using density functional theory calculations. This approach is applied to polar interfaces between group-III nitrides (AlN and GaN) and SiC and clarifies the interplay of chemical bonding and charge neutrality at the interface, which is crucial for the stability and polarity of group-III nitrides on SiC substrates. The ideal interface is stabilized among various atomic arrangements over the wide range of the chemical potential on Si-face SiC, whereas those with intermixing are favorable on C-face SiC. The stabilization of the ideal interfaces resulting in Ga-polar GaN and Al-polar AlN films on Si-face SiC is consistent with experiments, suggesting that our approach is versatile to evaluate various polar heterojunction interfaces as well as group-III nitrides on semiconductor substrates.