Ferroelectric Gates for Modulation of 2D Electron Gas at GaN/AlGaN Interfaces

Abstract

AbstractThe Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ferroelectric gate was successfully integrated into the GaN/AlGaN heterostructure with 2D electron gas. The processing conditions were optimized in a way to obtain high quality textured Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films without destroying the 2D gas situated as close to the interface as 20nm. Study of transport properties in this system demonstrates a possibility to control the 2D gas by switching the spontaneous polarization in the gate. Concentration and mobility of electrons in the 2D gas were monitored using Hall effect and resistivity measurements in a wide temperature range from 4.2K to 300K. The polarization oriented in the direction “from bottom to top” provokes a partial depletion effect in the channel resulting in a conductivity decrease. A correlation between the depletion effect in 2D gas and the change of the spontaneous polarization with temperature has been observed. The depletion effect is found to be reversible so that the initial conductivity in 2D gas can be restored by inversing the spontaneous polarization in the gate. These results suggest that ferroelectric gates integrated into systems with 2D electron gas may be potentially interesting for a number of experiments and applications as a flexible and nondestructive way of making rewritable nanopatterns on semiconductor heterostructures.