Abstract
Recent reports of magnetotransport measurements of InSb/Al1-xInxSb quantum well structures at low temperature (3 K) have shown the need for inclusion of a new scattering mechanism not present in traditional transport lifetime models. Observations and analysis of characteristic surface structures using differential interference contrast DIC (Nomarski) optical imaging have extracted representative average grain feature sizes for this surface structure and shown these features to be the limiting low temperature scattering mechanism. We have subsequently modelled the potential profile of these surface structures using Landauer-Büttiker tunnelling calculations and a combination of a Monte-Carlo simulation and Drude model for mobility. This model matches experimentally measured currents and mobilities at low temperatures, giving a range of possible barrier heights and widths, as well modelling the theoretical trend in mobility with temperature.
Highlights
Indium antimonide (InSb) exhibits the lowest reported electron effective mass (m∗ = 0.014 me) [1] and highest reported room-temperature electron mobility ( = 78,000 cm2V-1s-1) [1] of any compound semiconductor
There has been recent interest in the development of high quality InSb material following the report of twodimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel mobilities in excess of 200,000 cm2V-1s-1 at T = 1.8 K [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] and the recent reports of Majorana fermion observation in InSb nanowires [10, 11]
Transport modelling shows phonon scattering is dominant, and it is not possible to precisely determine the shape of potential barrier due to surface features on this sample. These figures do show that the low temperature limiting scattering due to surface features can be modelled as a series of potential barriers, with a range of widths, matching measured currents and Hall mobilities to those calculated through tunneling currents and Monte Carlo simulations
Summary
Indium antimonide (InSb) exhibits the lowest reported electron effective mass (m∗ = 0.014 me) [1] and highest reported room-temperature electron mobility ( = 78,000 cm2V-1s-1) [1] of any compound semiconductor. These properties make InSb suited to many electronic applications, including low power high frequency electronics and quantum device realisation. The strong spin-orbit interaction and extremely large Landé g-factor (g ≈ -50) [1, 12] exhibited in InSb has gained attention for potential exploitation in spintronics and quantum information control [13,14,15]
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