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One of the well-established and significant applications of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is in solid-state neutron detectors, which necessitate the development of quasi-bulk h-BN crystals. To advance the material and device development of h-BN, it is essential to characterize its bulk electrical transport properties. However, this task is challenging due to h-BN's ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) of approximately 6.1 eV, which results in an extremely high electrical resistivity, typically exceeding 1012 Ω⋅cm. On the other hand, the mobility-lifetime (μτ) product, a key figure of merit for determining the overall device performance, is more readily accessible through the characterization of the I-V characteristics under illumination. In this study, we investigate the in-plane μτ products of lateral devices fabricated from freestanding quasi-bulk h-BN wafers synthesized by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. Our results reveal an unexpected decrease in the in-plane μτ product as the device width decreases. Utilizing a simple two-region carrier transport model, where the central region of the device represents the bulk h-BN material free from metal contacts and the two edge regions are influenced by metal contacts, we demonstrate that the μτ product in the edge areas covered by metal contacts decreases by nearly two orders of magnitude compared to the bulk value. We attribute this significant reduction in μτ product to the layered crystalline structure of h-BN, which permits metal atoms to infiltrate into the interlayer spacings. As a result, the measured μτ product is significantly lower than the true bulk value. These findings provide valuable insights into the design and fabrication of high-performance h-BN devices, which typically leverage its exceptional in-plane transport properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlN stands out for its remarkable figures of merit for electronic and photonic devices, attributed to its ultrawide bandgap of ∼6.1 eV and an exceptionally high critical field of ∼15 MV/cm. More recently, zirconium (Zr) doped AlN (AlN:Zr) has also been identified as a promising material platform for the exploration of solid-state qubits for quantum information and technology, high performance piezoelectric acoustic wave resonators, and optically triggered ultrafast power switching devices facilitated by optically activating Zr related impurities. Despite the significant potential, the ability for producing AlN:Zr epitaxial structures has yet to be established. In this study, we have achieved AlN:Zr epilayers with a high Zr doping level [NZr] of up to 1020 cm−3 using industrial standard metal-organic chemical vapor deposition growth technique. High crystalline quality of AlN:Zr was confirmed by x-ray diffraction, revealing a narrow full width at half maximum of the (002) rocking curve at 216 arcsec for 1.8 μm thick epilayers deposited on sapphire at [NZr]=1020 cm−3. Zr doping was observed to slightly increase the c-lattice constant to 4.992 Å for AlN:Zr (at [NZr]=1020 cm−3) compared to 4.980 Å for undoped AlN. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement results verified the substitution of Zr at the Al site (ZrAl). The formation of (ZrAl–VN) complexes, which are predicted to possess all the desired properties required by quantum qubits, was confirmed through optical absorption studies. The realization of high-quality AlN:Zr epilayers significantly broadens the scope of technologically significant device applications for AlN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors inherently exhibit very high electrical resistivities. This property presents not only challenges in probing their electrical transport properties but also difficulties to fabricate, understand, and characterize the electrical properties of metal contacts on these materials. Here, we report the measurements and analysis of the applied electric field dependence of photocurrent to reveal the effect of metal contacts on the transport properties of highly resistive h-BN. Our results indicate that even for h-BN with a room temperature resistivity as high as 1014 Ω cm, the as-deposited metal contact is not a completely blocking type as commonly assumed in previous analyses for other large bandgap insulating materials. By modifying the boundary condition between the metal/semiconductor interface, a quantitative description has been obtained, which can be used to determine if the metal contact is Ohmic or blocking type. This quantitative description should be applicable to all UWBG semiconductors with extremely high electrical resistivities. The work also provides a better understanding of how the metal contact type affects the transport properties of UWBG semiconductors in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining its unique features of ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) and two-dimensional nature, h-BN has been explored for emerging applications such as deep ultraviolet optoelectronic devices and single photon emitters. One of the unusual applications of h-BN is for solid-state neutron detectors by utilizing the property of high thermal neutron capture cross section of B-10 as well as its UWBG properties. Although a record high detection efficiency of 59% has been attained by h-BN detectors, the understanding/minimization of defects and impurities is still needed to further advance the h-BN material and detector technologies. We report metal organic chemical vapor deposition growth and oxygen (O) impurity diffusion in thick h-BN. The diffusion coefficient (D) of O impurities has been measured via the evolution of an oxygen related emission with the etching depth, providing a value of D of ∼ 2 × 10−13 cm2/s at 1450 °C and supporting the interpretation that oxygen in h-BN is a substitutional donor. A multiple-buffer-layer approach was employed to mitigate to a certain degree the issue of oxygen diffusion from sapphire substrate during growth. It was demonstrated that the performance of h-BN neutron detectors fabricated from the wafer incorporating multiple buffer layers was significantly improved, as manifested by the enhanced thermal neutron detection efficiency. The advancement of the crystal growth technology of h-BN semi-bulk crystals creates applications in optoelectronic and power electronic devices utilizing the UWBG semiconductor properties of h-BN, while high efficiency h-BN neutron detectors have the potential to supplant the traditional He-3 gas detectors in various application areas by offering the obvious advantages of UWBG semiconductor technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In strongly correlated oxides, heterostructures provide a powerful route to manipulate the charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom to create distinctive functionalities. In this work, we have achieved atomically precise interface control in YBa2Cu3O7-x/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (YBCO/LCMO) heterostructures and find a hidden effective doping. This mechanism is responsible for higher Tc in the sample with the MnO2-terminated interface than in that with the La0.7Ca0.3O-terminated interface. The MnO2-terminated sample also shows a larger magnetic moment of Mn together with a lower valence state. For more than a decade, the control of Tc in these heterostructures prior to this work has been solely via the variation of YBCO or LCMO thickness. This work hints at an alternative way of exploiting and exploring the interactions between superconductivity and magnetism in this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Erbium (Er) doped GaN is a promising gain medium for optical amplifiers and solid-state high energy lasers due to its high thermal conductivity, wide bandgap, mechanical hardness, and ability to emit in the highly useful 1.5 μm window. Finding the mechanisms to enhance the optical absorption efficiency at a resonant pump wavelength and emission efficiency at 1.5 μm is highly desirable. We report here the in-situ synthesis of the Er and Yb co-doped GaN epilayers (Er+Yb:GaN) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). It was observed that the 1.5 μm emission intensity of the Er doped GaN (Er:GaN) under 980 nm resonant pump can be boosted by a factor of 7 by co-doping the sample with Yb. The temperature dependent PL emission at 1.5 μm in the Er+Yb:GaN epilayers under an above bandgap excitation revealed a small thermal quenching of 12% from 10 to 300 K. From these results, it can be inferred that the process of energy transfer from Yb3+ to Er3+ ions is highly efficient, and non-radiative recombination channels are limited in the Er+Yb:GaN epilayers synthesized in-situ by MOCVD. Our results point to an effective way to improve the emission efficiency of the Er doped GaN for optical amplification and lasing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]