Influence of temperature on strain-induced polarization Coulomb field scattering in AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors

Abstract

Electron mobility scattering mechanism in AlN/GaN heterostuctures is investigated by temperature-dependent Hall measurement, and it is found that longitudinal optical phonon scattering dominates electron mobility near room temperature while the interface roughness scattering becomes the dominant carrier scattering mechanism at low temperatures (∼100 K). Based on measured current—voltage characteristics of prepared rectangular AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistor under different temperatures, the temperature-dependent variation of electron mobility under different gate biases is investigated. The polarization Coulomb field (PCF) scattering is found to become an important carrier scattering mechanism after device processing under different temperatures. Moreover, it is found that the PCF scattering is not generated from the thermal stresses, but from the piezoelectric contribution induced by the electrical field in the thin AlN barrier layer. This is attributed to the large lattice mismatch between the extreme thinner AlN barrier layer and GaN, giving rise to a stronger converse piezoelectric effect.