JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 85, NUMBER 6 15 MARCH 1999

Two-dimensional electron gases induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric

polarization charges in N- and Ga-face AlGaN/GaN heterostructures
O. Ambacher,a) J. Smart, J. R. Shealy, N. G. Weimann, K. Chu, M. Murphy,
W. J. Schaff, and L. F. Eastman
School of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
R. Dimitrov, L. Wittmer, and M. Stutzmann
Walter Schottky Institute, TU-Munich, Am Coulombwall, 85748 Garching, Germany
W. Rieger and J. Hilsenbeck
Ferdinand Braun Institute, Rudower Chaussee 5, 12489 Berlin, Germany
~Received 24 September 1998; accepted for publication 13 December 1998!
Carrier concentration profiles of two-dimensional electron gases are investigated in wurtzite,
Ga-face Alx Ga12x N/GaN/Alx Ga12x N and N-face GaN/Alx Ga12x N/GaN heterostructures used for
the fabrication of field effect transistors. Analysis of the measured electron distributions in
heterostructures with AlGaN barrier layers of different Al concentrations (0.15,x,0.5) and
thickness between 20 and 65 nm demonstrate the important role of spontaneous and piezoelectric
polarization on the carrier confinement at GaN/AlGaN and AlGaN/GaN interfaces. Characterization
of the electrical properties of nominally undoped transistor structures reveals the presence of high
sheet carrier concentrations, increasing from 631012 to 231013 cm22 in the GaN channel with
increasing Al-concentration from x50.15 to 0.31. The observed high sheet carrier concentrations
and strong confinement at specific interfaces of the N- and Ga-face pseudomorphic grown
heterostructures can be explained as a consequence of interface charges induced by piezoelectric
and spontaneous polarization effects. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.
@S0021-8979~99!04106-7#

I. INTRODUCTION AlGaAs/GaAs structures, leading to a significant increase of

the sheet carrier concentration at the interface.9–13 Bernardini
AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors et al.14 pointed out that, in addition to the high piezoelectric
~HFETs! have been a subject of intense recent investigation polarization, the spontaneous polarization ~polarization at
and have emerged as attractive candidates for high voltage, zero strain! is very large in wurtzite group-III-nitrides, par-
high-power operation at microwave frequencies.1–6 Although ticularly AlN possesses a spontaneous polarization only
the electron effective mass in GaN is 0.22, which is about about 3–5 times smaller than that of typical ferroelectric
three times higher than the effective electron mass in GaAs perovskites.15 The spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization
and as a result the low-field mobility of bulk GaN is much in wurtzite GaN and AlN are found to be ten times larger
less than that of GaAs, GaN has a larger peak electron ve- than in conventional III–V and II–VI semiconductor com-
locity, larger saturation velocity, higher thermal stability, and pounds and are comparable to those of ZnO. The spontane-
a larger band gap, very suitable for the use as channel- ous polarization can cause electric fields of up to 3 MV/cm
material in microwave power devices. Further contributing in group-III-nitride crystals, and strain in pseudomorphically
to the outstanding performance of AlGaN/GaN based HFETs grown AlGaN/GaN or lnGaN/GaN heterostructures can
is the ability to achieve two-dimensional electron gases cause an additional piezoelectric field of about 2 MV/cm.
~2DEG! with sheet carrier concentrations of 1013 cm22 or These very high polarizations and resulting electric fields
higher close to the interface without intentionally doping, produce high interface charge densities at group-III-nitride
well in excess of those achievable in other III–V material interfaces and spatial separation of the hole and electron
systems. It has been shown previously that piezoelectric ef- wave functions in GaN-based quantum well structures.16
fects can exert a substantial influence on charge density and In this article, we will focus on the electrical and struc-
electric field distributions in strained zincblende semicon- tural characterization of AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN and GaN/
ductors grown in the ~111! orientation,7 and more recently in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by metalorganic chemi-
strained or pseudomorphic group-III-nitride heterostructures cal vapor deposition ~MOCVD! and plasma induced
with the wurtzite crystal structure grown in the ~0001! molecular beam epitaxy ~PIMBE! to understand the forma-
orientation.8 Especially in wurtzite AlGaN/GaN based tran- tion of 2DEGs induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric po-
sistor structures, the piezoelectric polarization of the strained larization. Furthermore, we will elaborate on the important
top layer is more than five times larger as compared to role of the polarity on the confinement and localization of
2DEGs inside group-III-nitride heterostructures suitable for
a!
Electronic mail: ambacher@iiiv.tn.cornell.edu the fabrication of high power field effect transistors. Finally,

0021-8979/99/85(6)/3222/12/$15.00 3222 © 1999 American Institute of Physics

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al. 3223

mm. By decreasing the flow ratio of TEG to TMA, the Al-

content increases from 0.2 to 0.31, and the thickness of the
barrier increases from 20 to 40 nm.17
Additionally, GaN films, AlGaN/GaN, and GaN/AlGaN/
GaN heterostructures ~Fig. 1, structures B and C! are depos-
ited by PIMBE using a Tectra molecular-beam epitaxy
MBE® chamber with a background pressure of 5
310211 mbar, conventional effusion cells, and an Oxford
Applied Research CARS 25 r.f. plasma source for the gen-
eration of nitrogen radicals. The nitrogen flux through the
plasma source is fixed at 2 sccm causing a nitrogen partial
pressure in the MBE chamber of 431025 mbar during
growth. The samples are rotated at a rate of 20 rpm to obtain
homogeneous films over 2 in. ~0001! Al2O3 substrates. The
FIG. 1. Schematic drawing of the AlGaN/GaN based heterostructures grown
by MOCVD and PIMBE on c-Al2O3 substrates. optimized growth temperature T s for GaN and Alx Ga12x N
(0,x,0.5) was determined to be T s 5132 °C x1780 °C at
a deposition rate of 0.6 mm/h.6
we will calculate the polarization induced sheet charge and Besides the substrate temperature, the optimization of
sheet carrier concentration at AlGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN the Ga-flux under metal-rich growth conditions was found to
interfaces and compare our results with published experi- be most important for the growth of GaN with high electron
mental and theoretical data. mobility. By increasing the Ga-flux from 831014 cm22 s21
to 1.531015 cm22 s21 and keeping all other deposition pa-
II. GROWTH AND STRUCTURAL QUALITY OF AlGaN/ rameters constant, the electron mobility at room temperature
GaN HETEROSTRUCTURES for 1 mm-thick-films was increased from 50 to 250 cm2/V s,
The investigated epitaxial GaN layers, AlGaN/GaN, whereas the concentration of free carriers dropped from 5
AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN, and GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures 31017 to 831016 cm23. A further improvement of the mo-
are grown by MOCVD and PIMBE on c-plane sapphire sub- bility to 550 cm2/V s at room temperature and 750 cm2/V s at
strates. The MOCVD grown GaN-based layers and hetero- 77 K was realized by increasing the thickness of the GaN
structures ~heterostructure A, Fig. 1! are deposited at a pres- film to 2.5 mm. The carrier density for nominally undoped
sure of 100 mbar, using triethylgallium ~TEG!, samples was about 4.531016 cm23 at room temperature and
trimethylaluminium ~TMA!, and ammonia as precursors. A 131016 cm23 at 77 K. The improvement of electrical prop-
high-temperature AlGaN nucleation layer with a thickness of erties by increasing the Ga-flux coincides with a reduction of
about 20 nm is deposited before the growth of GaN. Epitax- structural defects, as determined by high resolution x-ray dif-
ial GaN films deposited with rates of up to 1.5 mm/h show fraction measurements ~HRXRD! and atomic force micros-
surfaces with bilayer steps ~surface roughness rms'0.2 nm! copy. Our best GaN films grown by PIMBE without nucle-
and a few nanopipes. The measured free carrier concentra- ation layers exhibited a full width at half maximum of 250
tion and Hall-mobility at room temperature are 2 arc s ~rocking curve! and a surface roughness rms,2 nm for
31016 cm23 and 600 cm2/V s for a sample thicknesses of 1.4 2.5 mm-thick-films.

FIG. 2. Reciprocal space maps of the 20.5 reflections of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures measured by HRXRD. The position of the x-ray diffraction reflections
for relaxed and pseudomorphic grown AlGaN with different alloy compositions are shown as dashed lines.

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3224 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al.

TABLE I. Structural parameters, Bohr radius, and binding energy for AlN,
GaN, and InN.

Wurtzite, 300 K AlN GaN InN

a 0 @Å#b 3.112 3.189 3.54

c 0 @Å#b 4.982 5.185 5.705
c 0 /a 0 ~exp!b 1.6010 1.6259 1.6116
c 0 /a 0 ~cal!a 1.6190 1.6336 1.6270
u 0a 0.380 0.376 0.377
a Bohr @Å#a 5.814 6.04 6.66
E B (M – N) @eV#b 2.88 2.20 1.98
a
Ref. 14.
b
Ref. 18.

AlGaN alloys were grown using the optimized flux of

Ga-metal atoms for the total flux of group III atoms. For
Si-doped AlGaN with an Al-content of 25%, we obtained an
electron mobility of 70 cm2/V s at a doping level of 1.5
31019 cm23. The good electrical properties of GaN and Si-
doped AlGaN motivated the PIMBE growth of nominal un-
doped AlGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures
shown in Fig. 1. Structure B is similar to the typical
MOCVD grown AlGaN/GaN HFET heterostructure A, but
lacks a nucleation layer. The heterostructure contains a 2.5
mm thick GaN buffer layer and a 50 or 65 nm Alx Ga12x N
undoped cap layer with Al contents between 0.15 and 0.5.
The AlGaN film is thick in comparison to typical transistor FIG. 3. Measured lattice constants a and c of GaN and AlGaN layers part of
structures (d AlGaN515– 30 nm) to enable the determination a pseudomorphic grown GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. The dashed and
the solid line indicate the lattice constants vs Al-content of the AlGaN layer
of strain and Al-content by HRXRD. The first two layers of for a pseudomorphic and relaxed grown barrier.
structures B and C are similar. In addition, heterostructure C
is capped by a 30 nm thick undoped GaN.
In order to determine the precise composition x of the compound.24,25 Although the thickness of the AlGaN layers
strained AlGaN layers in heterostructures B and C, recipro- (d AlGaN565 nm) grown on GaN is above the critical layer
cal space maps of the symmetric ~20.0! and asymmetric thickness estimated from the Matthews–Blakeslee model26
~20.5! reflexes ~Fig. 2! of the AlGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN/ or Fischer model27 for x.0.15, pseudomorphic growth is
GaN heterostructures are measured by HRXRD, and the al- observed up to x50.34, which is in agreement with the data
loy composition is calculated using the lattice constants and published by H. Amano et al.28 Even up to x50.38 pseudo-
elastic stiffness shown in Table I and Table II for each binary morphic growth is observed, but the lattice constant a(GaN)
is slightly decreased by 0.0005 nm ~Fig. 3!. The structural
quality decreases and partial relaxation of the AlGaN layer
TABLE II. Measured and calculated elastic constants of wurtzite and cubic
occurs for x50.5 ~Fig. 2!.
AlN, GaN, and InN.
The piezoelectric polarization, the polarization induced
AlN GaN InN charge density, and the sheet carrier density calculated later
GPa
a b c b d on will be determined for pseudomorphic grown heterostruc-
wurtzite exp. cal. exp. cal. exp. cal.b
tures. Because of the measured lattice constants and strain of
c11 345 396 374 367 190 223 the AlGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN/GaN structures, we have
c12 125 137 106 135 104 115 to expect good agreement between the theoretical and ex-
c13 120 108 70 103 121 92
c33 395 373 379 405 182 224
perimental results as long as x,0.38 and d AlGaN<65 nm.
c44 118 116 101 95 10 48 Before the influence of piezoelectric and spontaneous
B 201 207 180 202 139 141 polarization on the carrier confinement at the AlGaN/GaN
interfaces can be calculated, we will discuss the directions of
zincblende cal.e cal.b cal.e cal.b cal.e cal.b the polarizations which are influenced by the polarity of the
c11 304 304 296 293 184 187 crystals.
c12 152 160 154 159 116 125
c44 199 193 206 155 177 86 III. POLARITY
a
Ref. 19. Noncentrosymmetric compound crystals exhibit two dif-
b
Ref. 20.
c ferent sequences of the atomic layering in the two opposing
Ref. 21.
d
Ref. 22. directions parallel to certain crystallographic axes, and con-
e
Ref. 23. sequently crystallographic polarity along these axes can be

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al. 3225

ily than the smooth Ga-face, related to the finding of Sasaki

et al.35 that rough films ~N-face! oxidize more easily.
We used the x-ray standing wave method ~XSW! and
chemical etching to determine the polarity of the MOCVD
and PIMBE grown films. The advantage of the XSW tech-
nique lies in the combination of the structural sensitivity of
x-ray diffraction with the chemical elemental sensitivity in-
herent to x-ray spectroscopy.36 The method is based on gen-
erating an XSW field by x-ray Bragg diffraction and moni-
toring the x-ray fluorescence yield excited by this field as a
function of glancing angle as the GaN layer is turned through
the narrow region of Bragg reflection. Determining the po-
larity of noncentrosymmetric crystals with the XSW tech-
nique is straight forward and has been demonstrated for
GaP37,38 and GaAs.39,40 In the case of a wurtzite GaN film
FIG. 4. Schematic drawing of the crystal structure of wurtzite Ga-face and with a thickness of 1 mm grown by PIMBE ~similar to the
N-face GaN.
first layer of structures B and C! without nucleation layer, the
XSW technique was successfully applied. The standing wave
was generated by x-ray diffraction inside the GaN film and
observed. For binary A–B compounds with wurtzite struc- the Ga K a fluorescence yield was recorded as a function of
ture, the sequence of the atomic layers of the constituents A the incidente angle within the width of the ~0002! reflection
and B is reversed along the @0001# and @ 0001W # directions. peak. In these studies, N-face was found predominantly. The
The corresponding ~0001! and (0001̄) faces are the A-face uncertainty of the measurement allows for 10% fraction of
and B-face, respectively. In the case of heteroepitaxial Ga-face material, at most. However, the sharpness of the
growth of thin films of a noncentrosymmetric compound, the Bragg-peak indicates high structural film quality ~for further
polarity of the material cannot be predicted in a straightfor- details see Ref. 41!.
ward way, and must be determined by experiments. This is Chemical etching of the GaN film grown by PIMBE for
the case for GaN epitaxial layers and GaN-based heterostruc- 10 min at 80 °C in a 1:10 KOH:H2O solution increased the
tures with the most common growth direction normal to the rms surface roughness from 2 to about 7 nm, whereas the
$0001% basal plane, where the atoms are arranged in bilayers. MOCVD grown GaN films with a surface roughness of
These bilayers consist of two closely spaced hexagonal lay- rms'0.2 nm were stable over more than 30 min under the
ers, one formed by cations and the other formed by anions, same conditions.
leading to polar faces. Thus, in the case of GaN, a basal As observed by XSW and chemical etching, we con-
surface should be either Ga- or N-faced. By Ga-faced we clude that our PIMBE grown GaN films are of N-face, while
mean Ga on the top position of the $0001% bilayer, corre- our MOCVD grown films are of Ga-face material, in agree-
sponding to the @0001# polarity ~Fig. 4! ~by convention, the z ment with the observations made by other groups mentioned
or @0001# direction is given by a vector pointing from a Ga above. Because there are no theoretical and experimental re-
atom to a nearest-neighbor N atom!. It is, however, impor- sults, that the face of an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure can be
tant to note that the ~0001! and (0001̄) surfaces of GaN are different from the GaN bottom layer, it can be concluded that
nonequivalent and differ in their chemical and physical structure A ~Fig. 1! must possess the Ga~Al!-face, and het-
properties.29 erostructures B and C must be of N-face polarity material.
Both types of polarity were reported to be found by ion In the following, the influence of the different polarities
channeling and convergent beam electron diffraction in GaN on the electrical properties of AlGaN/GaN based structures
~0001! layers grown by MOCVD on c-plane sapphire if the will be discussed.
layers exhibited rough morphology, while for smooth films
Ga-face was exclusively concluded from the experimental IV. CARRIER CONFINEMENT AND TWO-
DIMENSIONAL ELECTRON GASES
results.30 This result was supported by a photoelectron dif-
fraction study of MOCVD grown films.31 Smith et al.32,33 Modulation doping, e.g., doping of the AlGaAs barrier
reported on investigations of surface reconstructions of GaN layer close to an AlGaAs/GaAs heterointerface, induces car-
grown by PIMBE on c-plane sapphire and PIMBE homoepi- riers in the undoped channel region. In the case of n-type
taxy on a MOCVD grown GaN sapphire substrate. They ob- doping of the barrier, the region in the barrier close to the
served two structurally nonequivalent faces with completely interface will be depleted, and the corresponding electrons
different surface reconstructions attributed to the N-face for will accumulate in a triangular shaped potential in the GaAs
MBE on sapphire and to the Ga-face for MBE on a MOCVD layer close to the interface. The electrons accumulated in the
template. potential will form a two-dimensional electron gas. These
Weyher et al.34 studied the etching of GaN crystals and electrons have an increased mobility in comparison to elec-
MOCVD GaN films in aqueous solutions of KOH and trons in the bulk of the active layer, since the carriers are
NaOH. They found that the rough surface of MOCVD films spatially separated from dopants in the barrier layer.42,43 This
with hexagonal crystallites ~N-face!31 etched much more eas- fact is frequently used for device applications in HFETs.

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3226 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al.

Even at interfaces of intentionally undoped AlGaN/GaN

heterostructures with high structural quality the formation of
a 2DEG can be expected because of the free carrier back-
ground concentration in the active GaN and the AlGaN bar-
rier layers or carrier injection from metal contacts. Hall mea-
surements using van der Pauw configuration and Ti/Al
metalization for ohmic contacts are used to determine the
electron mobility and the sheet carrier concentration of the
2DEG. For structure A ~MOCVD, d AlGaN520 nm!, the elec-
tron sheet concentration and the mobility at room tempera-
ture increased from 6.231012 to 1.131013 cm22, and 540 to
800 cm2/V s, respectively, by increasing the Al content x of
the AlGaN barrier from x50.24 to 0.31. For structure B
~PIMBE! Hall measurements yielded a sheet carrier concen-
tration and mobility of 2.731012 cm22 and 350 cm2/V s at
300 K, and 4.431011 cm22 and 345 cm2/V s at 77 K, respec-
tively. Carrier confinement or a two-dimensional electron
gas was not observed in structure B. In structure C grown by
PIMBE ~inverted structure!, the carrier concentration for a
barrier with x50.2 decreased only slightly from 7.431012 to
6.531012 cm22, but the mobility increased significantly from
1000 to 2000 cm2/V s by lowering the measurement tempera-
ture from 300 to 77 K. The constant electron sheet concen-
tration and the drastic improvement in the electron mobility
indicate spatial confinement of carriers, and the formation of
a 2DEG in this structure. By increasing the Al-mole fraction FIG. 5. C – V-concentration profile N C – V vs penetration depth of
to 0.26, the sheet carrier concentration of the 2DEG in- Al0.24Ga0.76N/GaN/AlGaN heterostructures grown by MOCVD with thick-
creased to 1.231013 and 1.131013 cm22 ~mobility 830 and nesses of the barrier between 20 and 40 nm measured by C – V-profiling
1510 cm2/V s! at room temperature and 77 K, respectively. technique. The insert shows N C – V vs depth on a logarithmic scale for het-
erostructures with alloy compositions of x50.24 and 0.31. The 2DEG is
To determine at which interface of structure C the elec- located at the upper AlGaN/GaN interface.
trons are confined, the upper 30 nm of the Hall sample was
removed by reactive ion etching using BCl3. After the etch-
ing, a low electron sheet density of 431012 cm22 and mobil- cially in structures with quantum confinement, the
ity of 200 cm2/V s was measured, indicating that the 2DEG C – V-concentration does not have a direct physical meaning.
is confined at the upper GaN/AlGaN interface for the PIMBE However, N C – V corresponds approximately to the free car-
grown material. rier concentration N C – V (z)>n(z). 45 Nevertheless, Kroemer
To find additional information about the sheet carrier et al.46 showed that charge conservation is fulfilled for
concentration and at which interface the 2DEGs are con- C – V-profiles, that is,

E E
fined, we applied the capacitance–voltage (C – V) profiling ` `
technique44 using a multifrequency inductance, capacitance, n S5 N C – V ~ z C – V ! dz C – V 5 n ~ z ! dz.
resistivity ~LCR! meter operated at room temperature be- 2` 2`
tween 10 and 20 kHz and a mercury probe with a contact This property of the C – V-technique is very useful and en-
area of 750 mm2. The C – V profiling technique allows one to ables the determination of the sheet carrier concentration n S
measure the carrier concentration and of the location of the 2DEG in the AlGaN/GaN hetero-
C 3 dV structures. In Fig. 5, the measured N C – V (z C – V ) profiles are
N C – V5 , ~1! shown for structure A with Al0.24Ga0.76N barrier thicknesses
e e 0 e dC
between 20 and 40 nm. A slight increase of n S from 6
as a function of depth 31012 to 931012 cm22 with increasing thickness of the bar-
e 0e rier is detected. We found an increase of the sheet carrier
z C – V5 , ~2! concentration to 1.531013 cm22 by increasing the Al-content
C
to x50.31 (d AlGaN520 nm). This is in good agreement with
where V is the voltage applied to the Schottky contact ~mer- the results of the Hall measurements. More importantly, the
cury!, C is the measured differential capacitance per unit localization of the 2DEG inside the MOCVD grown Ga-face
area, and e is the dielectric constant of the material ~e 0 heterostructure is determined to be at the upper AlGaN/GaN
58.85310214C/V cm; e51.602310219C!. In the simplest interface ~insert of Fig. 5!, similar to the observations by Yu
case, that is for a noncompensated, homogeneously doped et al. using C – V-measurements.47 N C – V (z C – V ) profiles for
semiconductor, the C – V-concentration N C – V equals the free inverted structure C with d AlGaN between 30 and 40 nm and
carrier concentration. In semiconductors and heterostructures Al-contents of 0.17, 0.2, and 0.26 are shown in Fig. 6. Again
with large variations of the doping concentration, and espe- we observe very high sheet carrier concentrations increasing

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al. 3227

TABLE III. Spontaneous polarization, piezoelectric and dielectric constants

of AlN, GaN, and InN.

wurtzite AlN GaN InN

P SP @ C/m2# 20.081 20.029 20.032

1.46a 0.73a 0.97a
e 33 1.55b 1c
@C/m2# 0.65d
0.44e
e 31 20.60a 20.49a 20.57a
@C/m2# 20.58b 20.36c
0.33d
20.22e
e 15 20.48b 20.3c
@C/m2# 20.33d
20.22e
e 11 9.0b 9.5f
e 33 10.7b 10.4f
a
Ref. 14.
b
Ref. 47.
c
Ref. 48.
d
Ref. 49.
e
Ref. 50.
f
Ref. 51.

and the strain-induced or piezoelectric polarization PPE . Be-

cause of the sensitive dependence of the spontaneous polar-
ization on the structural parameters, there are some quantita-
FIG. 6. C – V-concentration profile N C – V vs penetration depth of
GaN/Alx Ga12x N/GaN heterostructures grown by PIMBE with Al-contents
tive differences in the polarization for GaN and AlN. The
of the barrier between x50.17 and 0.26 measured by C – V-profiling tech- increasing nonideality of the crystal structure going from
nique. The insert shows N C – V vs depth on a logarithmic scale for a hetero- GaN to AlN @u 0 being the anion-cation bond length along the
structure with an alloy composition of x50.2. The 2DEG is located at the ~0001! axis in units of c increases, c/a decreases ~Table I!#
upper GaN/AlGaN interface.
corresponds to an increase in spontaneous polarization. Here
we consider polarizations along the @0001# axis, since this is
the direction along which epitaxial films and AlGaN/GaN
from 7.831012 to 1.331013 if the Al-content is increased.
heterostructures are grown. The spontaneous polarization
But opposite to the heterostructures grown by MOCVD, the
along the c-axis of the wurtzite crystal is PSP5 P SPz. The
2DEG is located at the upper GaN/AlGaN interface of the
piezoelectric polarization can be calculated with the piezo-
N-face GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure. In structures B and
electric coefficients e 33 and e 13 ~Table III! as
C no carrier accumulation could be detected at the AlGaN/
GaN interface, although the structural quality of the layer P PE5e 33e z 1e 31~ e x 1 e y ! , ~3!
and interface was found to be very similar.
where a 0 and c 0 are the equilibrium values of the lattice
As a consequence of the experimental observations the
parameters, e z 5(c2c 0 )/c 0 is the strain along the c-axis, and
following questions arise:
the in-plane strain e x 5 e y 5(a2a 0 )/a 0 is assumed to be iso-
~i! What are the reasons for the very high sheet carrier tropic. The third independent component of the piezoelectric
densities at one of the interfaces of the undoped het- tensor, e 15 , is related to the polarization induced by shear
erostructures? strain, and will not be discussed. The relation between the
~ii! Why are the carriers forming a 2DEG located at dif- lattice constants of the hexagonal GaN is given to
ferent interfaces inside the Ga-face ~MOCVD! and
c2c 0 C 13 a2a 0
N-face ~PIMBE! heterostructures? 522 , ~4!
c0 C 33 a 0
To answer these questions, we have to understand the
role of effects induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric po- where C 13 and C 33 are elastic constants ~Table II!. Using
larization in heterostructures with different polarities in more Eqs. ~3! and ~4!, the amount of the piezoelectric polarization
detail. in the direction of the c-axis can be determined by

V. SPONTANEOUS AND PIEZOELECTRIC

P PE52
a2a 0
a0 S
e 312e 33
C 13
C 33
. D ~5!
POLARIZATION
Since @ e 312e 33(C 13 /C 33) # ,0 for AlGaN over the whole
In the absence of external electric fields, the total mac- range of compositions, the piezoelectric polarization is nega-
roscopic polarization P of a GaN or AlGaN layer is the sum tive for tensile and positive for compressive strained barriers,
of the spontaneous polarization PSP in the equilibrium lattice, respectively. The spontaneous polarization for GaN and AlN

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3228 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al.

2DEG with a sheet carrier concentration n S , assuming that

the AlGaN/GaN band offset is reasonably high and that the
interface roughness is low. A negative sheet charge density
~2s! will cause an accumulation of holes at the interface.
For a Ga~Al!-face AlGaN on top of GaN heterostructure ~as
calculated in detail later on!, the polarization induced sheet
charge is positive @Fig. 7~a!#. Even if the heterostructure is
relaxed ~AlGaN thickness @65 nm!, electrons will be con-
fined at the interface because of the difference in spontane-
ous polarization of GaN and AlGaN. If this heterostructure is
grown pseudomorphic @Fig. 7~b!# the piezoelectric polariza-
tion of the tensile strained AlGaN barrier will increase the
difference P(AlGaN)- P(GaN), and likewise the sheet
charge 1s and the sheet carrier concentration n S . For
N-face AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, the spontaneous and
piezoelectric polarization have opposite directions in com-
parison to the Ga-face structure. The polarization induced
sheet charge is negative, and holes can be accumulated at
this interface @Figs. 7~d! and 7~e!#. In N-face heterostruc-
tures, electrons will be confined if GaN is grown on top of
AlGaN, due to the positive sheet charge which will be
formed in this case @Fig. 7~f!#. Following this argument, it
becomes obvious why a 2DEG is detected by Hall-effect and
FIG. 7. Polarization induced sheet charge density and directions of the
the C–V-profiling technique at the AlGaN/GaN interface of
spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization in Ga- and N-face strained and structure A but not in structure B ~Fig. 1!. Because of the
relaxed AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. different polarities of the MOCVD ~Ga~Al!-face! and
PIMBE ~N-face! grown samples, a positive sheet charge
which is compensated by electrons 2DEG has to be expected
was found to be negative,14 meaning that for Ga~Al!-face for heterostructure A and a negative sheet charge causing
heterostructures the spontaneous polarization is pointing to- hole accumulation at the interface of structure B. The N-face
wards the substrate ~Fig. 7!. As a consequence, the alignment heterostructure C grown by PIMBE contains a GaN/AlGaN
of the piezoelectrical and spontaneous polarization is parallel and an AlGaN/GaN interface. In agreement with the given
in the case of tensile strain, and antiparallel in the case of arguments, the 2DEG is detected at the upper GaN/AlGaN
compressively strained top layers. If the polarity flips over ~1s! and not at the lower AlGaN/GaN ~2s! interface.
from Ga-face to N-face material, the piezoelectric, as well as To calculate the amount of the polarization induced
the spontaneous polarization changes its sign. In Fig. 7, the sheet charge density s at the AlGaN/GaN and GaN/AlGaN
directions of the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization interfaces in dependence of the Al-content x of the
are given for Ga-face, N-face, strained, unstrained AlGaN/ Alx Ga12x N barrier, we use the following set of linear inter-
GaN, and GaN/AlGaN heterostructures. polations between the physical properties of GaN and AlN:
Associated with a gradient of polarization in space is a lattice constant:
polarization induced charge density given by r P 5¹ P. In a ~ x ! 5 ~ 20.077x13.189! 10210 m, ~7!
analogy, at an abrupt interface of a top/bottom layer ~AlGaN/
GaN or GaN/AlGaN! heterostructure the polarization can de- elastic constants:
crease or increase within a bilayer, causing a polarization
sheet charge density defined by C 13~ x ! 5 ~ 5x1103! GPa, ~8!

s 5 P ~ top! 2 P ~ bottom! C 33~ x ! 5 ~ 232x1405! GPa, ~9!

5 $ P SP~ top! 1 P PE~ top! % 2 $ P SP~ bottom! piezoelectric constants:

1 P PE~ bottom! % . ~6! e 31~ x ! 5 ~ 20.11x20.49! C/m2, ~10!

Although, variations in composition, surface roughness, or e 33~ x ! 5 ~ 0.73x10.73! C/m2, ~11!
strain distribution will alter the local distribution of polariza-
tion induced sheet charge density. However, the total sheet spontaneous polarization:
charge, which is associated with the change of polarization P SP~ x ! 5 ~ 20.052x20.029! C/m2. ~12!
across the interface region will be very nearly equal to that
present at an abrupt interface. If the polarization induced The amount of the polarization induced sheet charge density
sheet charge density is positive ~1s!, free electrons will tend for the undoped pseudomorphic N-face GaN/Alx
to compensate the polarization induced charge, e.g., during Ga12x N/GaN heterostructure grown by PIMBE is calculated
the cooling process after growth. These electrons will form a using Eqs. ~5!, ~6!, and ~12!

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al. 3229

FIG. 8. Spontaneous, piezoelectric, total polarization of AlGaN and sheet FIG. 9. Calculated sheet charge density caused by spontaneous and piezo-
charge density at the upper interface of a N-face GaN/AlGaN/GaN hetero- electric polarization at the lower interface of a Ga-face GaN/AlGaN/GaN
structure vs alloy composition of the barrier. heterostructure vs alloy composition of the barrier.

u s ~ x ! u 5 u P PE~ Alx Ga12x N! 1 P SP~ Alx Ga12x N! 2 P SP~ GaN! u , x50.3, is determined. These calculated sheet charges located
~13! at the AlGaN/GaN interface are about ten times higher than

U H J
in comparable heterostructures of other III–V hetero-
a ~ 0 ! 2a ~ x ! C 13~ x ! structures,52 thus high polarization induced sheet carrier con-
u s~ x !u 5 2 e 31~ x ! 2e 33~ x !
a~ x ! C 33~ x ! centrations may be expected.

1 P SP~ x ! 2 P SP~ 0 ! . U ~14! V. SHEET CARRIER CONCENTRATION AND

MOBILITY
By increasing the Al-content of the barrier, the piezoelectric
and spontaneous polarization of AlGaN are increasing. The Free electrons tend to compensate the high positive po-
sheet charge density caused by the different total polariza- larization induced sheet charge at the AlGaN/GaN interface
tions of AlGaN and GaN is increasing slightly more than for Ga~Al!-face or at the GaN/AlGaN interface for N-face
linear. Increasing the Al-content from x50.15 to 0.3, the material. The maximum sheet carrier concentration located
calculated sheet charge density increases from s50.013 to at these interfaces of the nominally undoped structures is
0.027 C/m2. In Fig. 8, the amount of the spontaneous, piezo- expected to be11
electric, and total polarization of the AlGaN barrier, as well
as the sheet charge density at the GaN/AlGaN interface, are
shown versus x. For the N-face ( @ 0001̄ # ) heterostructure, the
n S~ x ! 5
1s~ x !
e
2 S
e 0e~ x !
de 2 D
@ e f b ~ x ! 1E F ~ x ! 2DE C ~ x !# ,
~15!
sign of the polarization induced sheet charge is determined to
be negative for the lower AlGaN/GaN and positive for the where d is the width of the Alx Ga12x N barrier, eF b is the
upper GaN/AlGaN interface. Applying Eqs. ~5!, ~6!, and ~12! Schottky–Barrier of a gate contact, E F is the Fermi level
to a Ga-face GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, the amount with respect to the GaN conduction-band-edge energy, and
of the sheet charge density remains the same, but the positive DE C is the conduction band offset at the AlGaN/GaN inter-
sheet charge causing a 2DEG is located at the lower AlGaN/ face. To determine the sheet carrier concentration from the
GaN interface. In Fig. 9, the sheet charge s /e at the AlGaN/ polarization induced sheet charge density from Eq. ~15!, we
GaN interface caused by the spontaneous and piezoelectric use the following approximations:
polarization is shown versus alloy composition, proving that dielectric constant:
the contribution of both kind of polarizations to the sheet e ~ x ! 520.5x19.5, ~16!
charge is nearly the same. For x50.18, a remarkably high
Schottky barrier53:
sheet charge s /e of 131013 cm22, increasing to 1.7
31013 cm22 if the Al-content of the barrier is enhanced to e f b 5 ~ 1.3x10.84! eV, ~17!

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3230 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al.

where the band gap of AlGaN is measured to be57

E g ~ x ! 5xE g ~ AlN! 1 ~ 12x ! E g ~ GaN! 2x ~ 12x ! 1.0 eV,

~20!

5x6.13 eV1 ~ 12x ! 3.42 eV2x ~ 12x ! 1.0 eV. ~21!

The calculated maximum sheet carrier concentration n S (x)

of the 2DEG located at an AlGaN/GaN interface is shown in
Fig. 10. For a constant barrier width of 30 nm, n S is deter-
mined to be 0.92, 1.51, and 2.131013 cm22 for alloy compo-
sitions of x50.2, 0.3, and 0.4, respectively. If the width of an
Al0.25Ga0.75N barrier is decreased from 30 over 20 to 10 nm
the sheet carrier concentration is lowered from 1.21 over
1.12 to 0.8631013 cm22 in good agreement with the experi-
mental results obtained by C – V-profiling. It should be men-
tioned that the maximum sheet carrier concentration n S at the
interface of a Ga~Al!-face pseudomorphically grown
Alx Ga12x N/GaN is equal to the sheet carrier concentration at
the GaN/Ax Ga12x N interface ~for the same alloy composi-
tion of the barrier! of a pseudomorphic grown N-face GaN/
AlGaN/GaN heterostructure ~realized in this work!, but n S
located at the interface of N-face pseudomorphic grown GaN
on top of relaxed Alx Ga12x N will be slightly lower due to
the smaller piezoelectric constants of GaN in comparison to
AlGaN ~see insert of Fig. 10 and Table IV!.
To prove our interpolation model for the calculation of
FIG. 10. Sheet carrier concentration of the 2DEG confined at a Ga-face the piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization used to ex-
~GaN/!AlGaN/GaN or N-face GaN/AlGaN~/GaN! interface for different
plain the very high sheet carrier concentration, we compare
thickness of the AlGaN barrier. The insert shows the maximum sheet carrier
concentration of a pseudomorphic grown Ga-face AlGaN/GaN and a N-face the calculated maximum sheet carrier density versus Al-
GaN/AlGaN heterostructure. content (d(AlGaN)530 nm) with the sheet carrier concen-
tration experimentally determined by Hall-effect and
C – V-measurements presented above. These data are shown
Fermi energy54: in Fig. 11 for undoped and doped AlGaN/GaN based hetero-
p\2 structures suitable for the fabrication of high quality and high
E F ~ x ! 5E 0 ~ x ! 1 n ~ x !, power HFETs.6,17,58–63 Between barrier alloy compositions
m *~ x ! S
of x50.15 and 0.3, we find an excellent agreement of the
where the ground subband level of the 2DEG is given by calculated and measured sheet carrier concentrations of un-

H J 2/3 doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures ~Fig. 11, black sym-

9 p \e 2 n S~ x ! bols!. Even for Si-doped barriers ~open symbols!, the mea-
E 0~ x ! 5 , ~18!
8 e 0 A8m * ~ x ! e ~ x ! sured sheet carrier concentrations are very close to the
maximum sheet carrier concentrations compensating the po-
with the effective electron mass, m * (x)'0.22m e , band
larization induced sheet charge. Heterostructures containing
offset55,56:
AlGaN barriers with x.0.4 and x,0.15 are not applicable
DE C 50.7@ E g ~ x ! 2E g ~ 0 !# , ~19! for high quality HFETs to date. For x.0.4, the high lattice

TABLE IV. Calculated stress, polarization, electric field, sheet charge density, and sheet carrier density of
relaxed and strained Ga-face and N-face AlGaN/GaN heterostructures.

Top/bottom Strain P SP P PE s E ns
layer Face Stress 1023 1026 C/cm2 1026 C/cm2 1026 C/cm2 106 V/cm 1013 cm22

AlGaN/GaN e
Ga Relaxed 0 24.5 0 1.6 1.36
x50.3 0.83
N Relaxed 0 4.5 0 21.6 21.36 h
AlGaN/GaN e
Ga Tensil 7.3 24.5 21.1 2.7 6.8
x50.3 1.51
N Tensil 7.3 4.5 1.1 22.7 26.8 h
GaN/AlGaN
Ga Compress. 27.2 22.9 0.97 22.5 22.29 h
x50.3
e
N Compress. 27.2 2.9 20.97 2.5 2.29
1.42

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al. 3231

FIG. 11. Calculated and measured sheet carrier concentrations vs Al-content

of the AlGaN barrier layer.
FIG. 12. Calculated ~see Ref. 65! and measured 2DEG mobility vs sheet
carrier concentrations for different AlGaN/GaN interface roughnesses.
and thermal mismatch between the GaN buffer and the bar-
rier layer are causing a high density of structural defects in
the AlGaN, and rough interfaces limiting the 2DEG mobil- 51013 cm22!. Depending on the interface quality, this can
ity. For x,0.15, the conduction band offset becomes small decrease the mobility significantly due to the increase in in-
(DE C ,0.28 eV), resulting in bad confinement of the polar- terface roughness scattering shown in Fig. 12.65
ization induced sheet carrier concentration. Significant devia- The minimum sheet resistivity versus alloy composition
tions of the measured sheet carrier concentrations by Hall- is shown in Fig. 13 for different interface roughnesses. For
effect or C – V-profiling from the calculated values can be an ideal interface in an AlGaN/GaN based HFET, the calcu-
caused by free carrier concentrations in the GaN buffer layer, lated sheet resistivity lies between 300 and 190 V for Al
unintentional doping of the barrier ~n S will be higher!,64 or contents between 0.2 and 0.3. The lowest reported sheet re-
strain relaxation of the barrier ~n S will be lower!. sistivities for Al contents of the barrier layer between 0.2 and
Knowing the maximum sheet carrier concentration 0.3 are between 400 and 200 V.59–63 The experimentally
n S (x) at the interface of undoped AlGaN/GaN structures, observed slightly higher sheet resistivities can be caused by
one can estimate the minimum sheet resistivity r 2DEG(x) to interface roughness scattering or by scattering due to
dislocations,67 which were not taken into account in this
1 work.
r 2DEG~ x ! 5 , ~22!
en S ~ x ! m s ~ x ! The calculated and experimental results show that
2DEGs are generated by spontaneous and piezoelectric po-
where m s (x) is the drift mobility of electrons in the 2DEG.
larization effects with sheet resistivities suitable for high fre-
The drift mobility calculated by Oberhuber et al.65 is shown
quency and high power HFETs without doping of the barrier
in Fig. 12 together with experimental results as a function of
layer.
sheet carrier concentration and as a function of interface
roughness R. The latter may be characterized by a product of
VI. SUMMARY
step height and correlation length.66
At room temperature, the maximum electron mobility is We have investigated the formation of 2DEGs at inter-
limited by polar optical phonon scattering. At low sheet car- faces of pseudomorphic wurtzite AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN and
rier densities, impurity and piezoacoustic scattering diminish GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by MOCVD and
the mobility. For higher densities, these scattering processes PIMBE. For heterostructures with Ga~Al!-face polarity de-
are screened, which explains the increase in mobility up to posited by MOCVD, the 2DEG is located at the interface
2000 cm2/V s for n S .1013 cm22. At very high sheet carrier where AlGaN is grown on top of GaN, whereas in MBE
densities, the average distance of the 2DEG to the AlGaN/ grown samples, determined to be N-face, the electrons are
GaN interface becomes smaller ~only 2 nm for n s confined at the interface where GaN is grown on top of Al-

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3232 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 85, No. 6, 15 March 1999 Ambacher et al.

Stiftung for a Feodor Lynen fellowship, and to acknowledge

financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
~Stu 139/2!. The work done at Cornell University is sup-
ported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract Nos.
N00014-96-1-1223 and N00014-95-1-0926 under the direc-
tion of Dr. J. Zolper.

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