Magneto transport in crossed electric and magnetic fields in compensated bulk GaN

Abstract

Low-temperature high-field electron transport is studied for compensated bulk GaN subjected to crossed electric and magnetic fields. The electron kinetics, distribution function, and field dependencies of the magneto transport characteristics are analyzed by using the Monte-Carlo method. At zero magnetic field, for an ionized impurity concentration of 1016 cm−3 and an electron concentration of 1015 cm−3, it is shown that dissipative streaming transport with a strong anisotropic electron distribution in the momentum space is realized at electric fields in the range 3−10 kV/cm and for a lattice temperature of 30 K. The magnetic field destroys the dissipative streaming transport. Indeed, for a magnetic field greater than 4 T, the electrons are predominantly confined in a region of the momentum space where their energy is smaller than the optical phonon energy and the strong inelastic scattering by optical phonons is practically eliminated. A quasi-ballistic electron transport occurs in the form of a vortex-like motion in the momentum space. The axis of rotation of this vortex coincides with the average electron momentum. A general analysis of the distribution function suitable for any configuration of the Hall circuit is presented. The main magneto transport characteristics (dissipative current, Hall current, and Hall electric field) are studied for the short and open Hall circuits. We show that the magneto transport measurements can provide valuable information on the main features of the electron distribution function and electron dynamics in GaN. Finally, we suggest that the strong dependency of the dissipative current on the parameters of the Hall circuit can be used for current modulation and current switching.