Polarization effects and transport in AlGaN/GaN system

Abstract

The AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is important for both electronic and optoelectronic devices. In addition to having a large band gap, the heterostructure has a strong piezoelectric effect and a large spontaneous polarization. This allows one to incorporate a large electric field (>106 V/cm) and high sheet charge (>1013 cm−2) without doping. Theoretical studies are done to examine how polarization effects controls the sheet charge density. The studies also focus on how interface roughness, aluminum mole fraction in the barrier, impurity scattering, sheet charge density, and phonon scattering influence mobility. Results are compared with experimental studies on samples grown by both molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We find that interface roughness is a dominant source of scattering in the samples reported. Due to the variation in growth techniques we find that the MBE samples have a smoother interface quality compared to the MOCVD samples. By carefully fitting the experimental data we present results on interface roughness parameters for MBE and MOCVD samples.