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Aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) has been receiving increasing interest for radio frequency microelectromechanical systems because of their higher achievable bandwidths owing to the larger piezoelectric response of AlScN compared to AlN. However, alloying scandium (Sc) with aluminum nitride (AlN) significantly lowers the thermal conductivity of AlScN due to phonon alloy scattering. Self-heating in AlScN devices potentially limits power handling, constrains the maximum transmission rate, and ultimately leads to thermal failure. We grew plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) AlScN on AlN-Al2O3 and GaN-Al2O3 substrates, and compared the cross-plane thermal conductivity to current work on AlScN grown on Si substrates.

The heteroepitaxial growth and phase formation of Ga2O3 on Al-polar AlN(0001) templates by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) are studied. Three different MBE approaches are employed: (i) conventional MBE, (ii) suboxide MBE (S-MBE), and (iii) metal-oxide-catalyzed epitaxy (MOCATAXY). We grow phase-pure β-Ga2O3(2̄01) and phase-pure ϵ/κ-Ga2O3(001) with smooth surfaces by S-MBE and MOCATAXY. Thin film analysis shows that the crystallographic and surface features of the β-Ga2O3(2̄01)/AlN(0001) and ϵ/κ-Ga2O3(001)/AlN(0001) epilayers are of high crystalline quality. Growth and phase diagrams are developed to synthesize Ga2O3 on AlN by MBE and MOCATAXY and to provide guidance to grow Ga2O3 on several non-oxide surfaces, e.g., AlN, GaN, and SiC, by MBE, S-MBE, and MOCATAXY.

Due to its high breakdown electric field, the ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor AlGaN has garnered much attention recently as a promising channel material for next-generation high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). A comprehensive experimental study of the effects of Al composition x on the transport and structural properties is lacking. We report the charge control and transport properties of polarization-induced 2D electron gases (2DEGs) in strained AlGaN quantum well channels in molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown AlN/AlxGa1−xN/AlN double heterostructures by systematically varying the Al content from x = 0 (GaN) to x = 0.74, spanning energy bandgaps of the conducting HEMT channels from 3.49 to 4.9 eV measured by photoluminescence. This results in a tunable 2DEG density from 0 to 3.7 × 1013 cm2. The room temperature mobilities of x ≥ 0.25 AlGaN channel HEMTs were limited by alloy disorder scattering to below 50 cm2/(V.s) for these 2DEG densities, leaving ample room for further heterostructure design improvements to boost mobilities. A characteristic alloy fluctuation energy of ≥1.8 eV for electron scattering in AlGaN alloy is estimated based on the temperature dependent electron transport experiments.

N-polar AlN epilayers were grown on the N-face of single-crystal bulk AlN substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. A combination of in situ thermal deoxidation and Al-assisted thermal desorption at high temperature aided in removing native surface oxides and impurities from the N-polar surface of the substrate enabling successful homoepitaxy. Subsequent epitaxial growth of the AlN layer on the in situ cleaned substrates, grown in a sufficiently high Al droplet regime, exhibited smooth surface morphologies with clean and wide atomic steps. KOH etch studies confirmed the N-polarity of the homoepitaxial films. Secondary ion mass spectrometry profiles show Si and H impurity concentrations below the noise levels, whereas O and C impurity concentrations of ∼8×1017 and ∼2×1017 atoms/cm3 are observed, respectively. Although the structural defect densities are low, they interestingly appear as inversion domains of different dimensionalities.

The AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructure is attractive for microwave and millimeter-wave power devices due to its thin top barrier, tight carrier confinement, and improved breakdown voltage. This work explores the large-signal RF performance of high-electron-mobility transistors on this heterostructure. Results are highlighted by record high on-current of 3.6 A/mm, and record maximum oscillation frequency ( $f_{max}$ ) of 233 GHz. The load-pull power sweep at 10 GHz demonstrate a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 22.7% with an associated gain ( $G_{T}$ ) of 8.7 dB and output power ( $P_{out}$ ) of 3 W/mm. When optimized for power, the peak $P_{out}$ of 3.3 W/mm has an associated PAE of 14.7% and $G_{T}$ of 3.2 dB. This first demonstration is encouraging for the mm-wave power potential of the AlN/GaN/AlN HEMT.

Wurtzite aluminum nitride (AlN) has attracted increasing attention for high-power and high-temperature operations due to its high piezoelectricity, ultrawide-bandgap, and large thermal conductivity k. The k of epitaxially grown AlN on foreign substrates has been investigated; however, no thermal studies have been conducted on homoepitaxially grown AlN. In this study, the thickness dependent k and thermal boundary conductance G of homoepitaxial AlN thin films were systematically studied using the optical pump–probe method of frequency-domain thermoreflectance. Our results show that k increases with the thickness and k values are among the highest reported for film thicknesses of 200 nm, 500 nm, and 1 μm, with values of 71.95, 152.04, and 195.71 W/(mK), respectively. Our first-principles calculations show good agreement with our measured data. Remarkably, the G between the epilayer and the substrate reported high values of 328, 477, 1180, and 2590 MW/(m2K) for sample thicknesses of 200 nm, 500 nm, 1 μm, and 3 μm, respectively. The high k and ultrahigh G of homoepitaxially grown AlN are very promising for efficient heat dissipation, which helps in device design and has advanced applications in micro-electromechanical systems, ultraviolet photonics, and high-power electronics.

β-Ga2O3 is a promising ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor whose properties can be further enhanced by alloying with Al. Here, using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, we find the thermodynamically unstable γ-phase is a ubiquitous structural defect in both β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films and doped β-Ga2O3 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. For undoped β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films, we observe γ-phase inclusions between nucleating islands of the β-phase at lower growth temperatures (∼500–600 °C). In doped β-Ga2O3, a thin layer of the γ-phase is observed on the surfaces of films grown with a wide range of n-type dopants and dopant concentrations. The thickness of the γ-phase layer was most strongly correlated with the growth temperature, peaking at about 600 °C. Ga interstitials are observed in the β-phase, especially near the interface with the γ-phase. By imaging the same region of the surface of a Sn-doped β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 after ex situ heating up to 400 °C, a γ-phase region is observed to grow above the initial surface, accompanied by a decrease in Ga interstitials in the β-phase. This suggests that the diffusion of Ga interstitials toward the surface is likely the mechanism for growth of the surface γ-phase and more generally that the more-open γ-phase may offer diffusion pathways to be a kinetically favored and early forming phase in the growth of Ga2O3. However, more modeling and simulation of the γ-phase and the interstitials are needed to understand the energetics and kinetics, the impact on electronic properties, and how to control them.

This article introduces a circuits model for a proposed spin-based device called a spin-orbit torque field-effect transistor (SOTFET) that can operate as a nonvolatile memory and logic device. The SOTFET utilizes an FET structure with a ferromagnetic-multiferroic (MF) gate-stack that enables read/compute and write functions to be isolated. This is achieved by a combination of a ferromagnetic layer that is programmable via spin-orbit torque coupled to an MF layer that also couples into the gate of a traditional FET. Additionally, this device has logic gate-like behavior and can be designed to operate in either AND or OR gate mode. We begin with a physics-based model of this device and derive a SPICE level model that can be integrated into the Cadence toolset. Using such a device we demonstrate MRAM, content addressable memories (CAM), and ternary CAM (TCAM) functionality with 3 to 5 transistors, a significant decrease over the CMOS alternative circuits, showing that such a device can enable low cost and compact associative memories not currently feasible with CMOS devices.

Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is a promising mechanism for writing magnetic memories, while field-effect transistors (FETs) are the gold-standard device for logic operation. The spin-orbit torque field-effect transistor (SOTFET) is a proposed device that couples an SOT-controlled ferromagnet to a semiconducting transistor channel via the transduction in a magnetoelectric multiferroic (MF). This allows the SOTFET to operate as both a memory and a logic device, but its realization depends on the choice of appropriate materials. In this report, we discuss and parametrize the types of materials that can lead to an SOTFET heterostructure.

We report a fully transparent thin-film transistor utilizing a La-doped BaSnO3 channel layer that provides a drain current of 0.468 mA/μm and an on-off ratio of 1.5 × 108. The La-doped BaSnO3 channel is grown on a 100–150 nm thick unintentionally doped BaSnO3 buffer layer on a (001) MgO substrate by molecular-beam epitaxy. Unpatterned channel layers show mobilities of 127–184 cm2 V−1 s−1 at carrier concentrations in the low to mid 1019 cm−3 range. The BaSnO3 is patterned by reactive ion etching under conditions preserving the high mobility and conductivity. Using this patterning method, a sub-micron-scale thin film transistor exhibiting complete depletion at room temperature is achieved.

Mn4N is a compound magnetic material that can be grown using MBE while exhibiting several desirable magnetic properties such as strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, low saturation magnetization, large domain size, and record high domain wall velocities. In addition to its potential for spintronic applications exploiting spin orbit torque with epitaxial topological insulator/ferromagnet bilayers, the possibility of integrating Mn4N seamlessly with the wide bandgap semiconductors GaN and SiC provides a pathway to merge logic, memory and communication components. We report a comparative study of MBE grown Mn4N thin films on four crystalline substrates: cubic MgO, and hexagonal GaN, SiC and sapphire. Under similar growth conditions, the Mn4N film is found to grow single crystalline on MgO and SiC, polycrystalline on GaN, and amorphous on sapphire. The magnetic properties vary on the substrates and correlate to the structural properties. Interestingly, the field dependent anomalous Hall resistance of Mn4N on GaN shows different behavior from other substrates such as a flipped sign of the anomalous Hall resistance.

We present a novel physics-inspired neural network (Pi-NN) approach for compact modeling. Development of high-quality compact models for devices is a key to connect device science with applications. One recent approach is to treat compact modeling as a regression problem in machine learning. The most common learning algorithm to develop compact models is the multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network. However, device compact models derived using the MLP neural networks often exhibit unphysical behavior, which is eliminated in the Pi-NN approach proposed in this paper, since the Pi-NN incorporates fundamental device physics. As a result, smooth, accurate, and computationally efficient device models can be learned from discrete data points by using Pi-NN. This paper sheds new light on the future of the neural network compact modeling.

Layered 2-D crystals embrace unique features of atomically thin bodies, dangling bond free interfaces, and step-like 2-D density of states. To exploit these features for the design of a steep slope transistor, we propose a Two-dimensional heterojunction interlayer tunneling field effect transistor (Thin-TFET), where a steep subthreshold swing (SS) of ~14 mV/dec and a high on-current of ~300 μm are estimated theoretically. The SS is ultimately limited by the density of states broadening at the band edges and the on-current density is estimated based on the interlayer charge transfer time measured in recent experimental studies. To minimize supply voltage VDD while simultaneously maximizing on currents, Thin-TFETs are best realized in heterostructures with near broken gap energy band alignment. Using the WSe2/SnSe2 stacked-monolayer heterostructure, a model material system with desired properties for Thin-TFETs, the performance of both n-type and p-type Thin-TFETs is theoretically evaluated. Nonideal effects such as a nonuniform van der Waals gap thickness between the two 2-D semiconductors and finite total access resistance are also studied. Finally, we present a benchmark study for digital applications, showing the Thin-TFETs may outperform CMOS and III-V TFETs in term of both switching speed and energy consumption at low-supply voltages.

Topological crystalline insulators have been recently predicted and observed in rock-salt structure SnSe {111} thin films. Previous studies have suggested that the Se-terminated surface of this thin film with hydrogen passivation has a reduced surface energy and is thus a preferred configuration. In this paper, synchrotron-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, along with density functional theory calculations, is used to demonstrate that a rock-salt SnSe {111} thin film epitaxially grown on Bi_{2}Se_{3} has a stable Sn-terminated surface. These observations are supported by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) intensity-voltage measurements and dynamical LEED calculations, which further show that the Sn-terminated SnSe {111} thin film has undergone a surface structural relaxation of the interlayer spacing between the Sn and Se atomic planes. In sharp contrast to the Se-terminated counterpart, the observed Dirac surface state in the Sn-terminated SnSe {111} thin film is shown to yield a high Fermi velocity, 0.50×10^{6} m/s, which suggests a potential mechanism of engineering the Dirac surface state of topological materials by tuning the surface configuration.

For the past two decades, repeatable resonant tunneling transport of electrons in III-nitride double barrier heterostructures has remained elusive at room temperature. In this work we theoretically and experimentally study III-nitride double-barrier resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs), the quantum transport characteristics of which exhibit new features that are unexplainable using existing semiconductor theory. The repeatable and robust resonant transport in our devices enables us to track the origin of these features to the broken inversion symmetry in the uniaxial crystal structure, which generates built-in spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization fields. Resonant tunneling transport enabled by the ground state as well as by the first excited state is demonstrated for the first time over a wide temperature window in planar III-nitride RTDs. An analytical transport model for polar resonant tunneling heterostructures is introduced for the first time, showing a good quantitative agreement with experimental data. From this model we realize that tunneling transport is an extremely sensitive measure of the built-in polarization fields. Since such electric fields play a crucial role in the design of electronic and photonic devices, but are difficult to measure, our work provides a completely new method to accurately determine their magnitude for the entire class of polar heterostructures.

β-Ga2O3 is an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor and is thus expected to be optically transparent to light of sub-bandgap wavelengths well into the ultraviolet. Contrary to this expectation, it is found here that free electrons in n-doped β-Ga2O3 absorb light from the IR to the UV wavelength range via intra- and inter-conduction band optical transitions. Intra-conduction band absorption occurs via an indirect optical phonon mediated process with 1/ω³ dependence in the visible to near-IR wavelength range. This frequency dependence markedly differs from the 1/ω² dependence predicted by the Drude model of free-carrier absorption. The inter-conduction band absorption between the lowest conduction band and a higher conduction band occurs via a direct optical process at λ∼349 nm (3.55 eV). Steady state and ultrafast optical spectroscopy measurements unambiguously identify both these absorption processes and enable quantitative measurements of the inter-conduction band energy and the frequency dependence of absorption. Whereas the intra-conduction band absorption does not depend on light polarization, inter-conduction band absorption is found to be strongly polarization dependent. The experimental observations, in excellent agreement with recent theoretical predictions for β-Ga2O3, provide important limits of sub-bandgap transparency for optoelectronics in the deep-UV to visible wavelength range and are also of importance for high electric field transport effects in this emerging semiconductor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-polar GaN p-n diodes are realized on single-crystal N-polar GaN bulk wafers by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth. The current-voltage characteristics show high-quality rectification and electroluminescence characteristics with a high on currents ~10 kA/cm2, low off currents <10-5 A/cm2, on/off current ratio of >109, and interband photon emission. The measured electroluminescence spectrum is dominated by a strong near-band edge emission, while deep level luminescence is greatly suppressed. A very low dislocation density leads to a high reverse breakdown electric field of ~2.2 MV/cm without fields plates-the highest reported for N-polar epitaxial structures. The low leakage current N-polar diodes open up several potential applications in polarization-engineered photonic and electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensile-strained Ge is a possible laser material for Si integrated circuits, but reports of lasers using tensile Ge show high threshold current densities and short lifetimes. To study the origins of these shortcomings, Ge ridge waveguides with tensile strain in three dimensions were fabricated using compressive silicon nitride (SiNx) films with up to 2 GPa stress as stress liners. A Raman peak shift of up to 11 cm-1 was observed, corresponding to 3.6% hydrostatic tensile strain for waveguides with a triangular cross-section. Real time degradation in tensile-strained Ge was observed and studied under transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A network of defects, resembling dark line defects, was observed to form and propagate with a speed and density strongly correlated with the local strain extracted from both modeled and measured strain profiles. This degradation suggests highly tensile-strained Ge lasers are likely to have significantly shorter lifetime than similar GaAs or InGaAs quantum well lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, carrier transport in graded AlxGa1-xN with a polarization-induced n-type doping as low as ~1017 cm-3 is reported. The graded AlxGa1-xN is grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on a sapphire substrate, and a uniform n-type doping without any intentional doping is realized by linearly varying the Al composition from 0% to 20% over a thickness of 600 nm. A compensating center concentration of ~1017 cm-3 was also estimated. A peak mobility of 900 cm²/ V·s at room temperature is extracted at an Al composition of ~7%, which represents the highest mobility achieved in n-Al0.07GaN with a carrier concentration of ~1017 cm-3. A comparison between experimental data and theoretical models shows that, at this low doping concentration, both dislocation scattering and alloy scattering are significant in limiting electron mobility and that a dislocation density of<107 cm-2 is necessary to optimize mobility near 1016 cm-3. The findings in this study provide insights into key elements for achieving high mobility at low doping levels in GaN, a critical parameter in the design of novel power electronics taking advantage of polarization doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the physics and polarization characteristics of 298 nm AlN-delta-GaN quantum well (QW) ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The physics analysis shows that the use of the AlN-delta-GaN QW structure can ensure dominant conduction band (C) to heavy-hole (HH) subband transition and significantly improve the electron and top HH subband wave function overlap. As a result, up to 30-times enhancement in the transverse-electric (TE)-polarized spontaneous emission rate of the proposed structure can be obtained as compared to a conventional AlGaN QW structure. The polarization properties of molecular beam epitaxy-grown AlN/GaN QW-like UV LEDs, which consist of 3-4 monolayer (QW-like) delta-GaN layers sandwiched by 2.5-nm AlN sub-QW layers, are investigated in this study. The polarization-dependent electroluminescence measurement results are consistent with the theoretical analysis. Specifically, the TE-polarized emission intensity is measured to be much larger than the transverse-magnetic emission, indicating significant potential for our proposed QW structure for high-efficiency TE-polarized mid-UV LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the first realization of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown strained GaN quantum well field-effect transistors on single-crystal bulk AlN substrates. The fabricated double heterostructure FETs exhibit a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density in the excess of 2 × 1013/cm2. The ohmic contacts to the 2DEG channel were formed by the n+ GaN MBE regrowth process, with a contact resistance of 0.13 Ω . mm. The Raman spectroscopy using the quantum well as an optical marker reveals the strain in the quantum well and strain relaxation in the regrown GaN contacts. A 65-nm-long rectangular-gate device showed a record high DC drain current drive of 2.0 A/mm and peak extrinsic transconductance of 250 mS/mm. Small-signal RF performance of the device achieved the current gain cutoff frequency fT~120 GHz. The DC and RF performances demonstrate that bulk AlN substrates offer an attractive alternative platform for strained quantum well nitride transistors for the future high-voltage and high-power microwave applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrically injected deep ultra-violet emission is obtained using monolayer thin GaN/AlN quantum structures as active regions. The emission wavelength is tuned by controlling the thickness of ultrathin GaN layers with monolayer precision using plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Single peaked emission spectra are achieved with narrow full width at half maximum for three different light emitting diodes operating at 232 nm, 246 nm, and 270 nm. 232 nm (5.34 eV) is the shortest electroluminescence (EL) emission wavelength reported so far using GaN as the light emitting material and employing polarization-induced doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By systematically comparing experimental and theoretical transport properties, we identify the polar optical phonon scattering as the dominant mechanism limiting electron mobility in β-Ga2O3 to <200cm²/Vs at 300 K for donor doping densities lower than ~1018cm3. Despite similar electron effective mass of β-Ga2O3 to GaN, the electron mobility is ~10x lower because of a massive Fröhlich interaction, due to the low phonon energies stemming from the crystal structure and strong bond ionicity. Based on the theoretical and experimental analysis, we provide an empirical expression for electron mobility in β-Ga2O3 that should help calibrate its potential in high performance device design and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered materials are an actively pursued area of research for realizing highly scaled technologies involving both traditional device structures as well as new physics. Lately, non-equilibrium growth of 2D materials using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is gathering traction in the scientific community and here we aim to highlight one of its strengths, growth of abrupt heterostructures, and superlattices (SLs). In this work we present several of the firsts: first growth of MoTe2 by MBE, MoSe2 on Bi2Se3 SLs, transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) SLs, and lateral junction between a quintuple atomic layer of Bi2Te3 and a triple atomic layer of MoTe2. Reflected high electron energy diffraction oscillations presented during the growth of TMD SLs strengthen our claim that ultrathin heterostructures with monolayer layer control is within reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the insertion of thin InxGa1-xN layers into Nitrogen-polar GaN p-n junctions, polarizationinduced Zener tunnel junctions are studied. The reverse-bias interband Zener tunneling current is found to be weakly temperature dependent, as opposed to the strongly temperature-dependent forward bias current. This indicates tunneling as the primary reverse-bias current transport mechanism. The Indium composition in the InGaN layer is systematically varied to demonstrate the increase in the interband tunneling current. Comparing the experimentally measured tunneling currents to a model helps identify the specific challenges in potentially taking such junctions towards nitride-based polarization-induced tunneling field-effect transistors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the design, simulation and characterisation of lens-coupled folded-dipole antennas (LC-FDAs) for terahertz (THz) detection and focal-plane imaging arrays. LC-FDAs operating at 200 GHz have been designed on semiinsulating silicon wafers with a resistivity larger than 20 000 Ω·cm. Even-odd mode analysis (EOA) has been performed to extract the currents of the two modes. The embedding impedance of the designed LC-FDAs has been simulated using conventional numerical electromagnetics, and the results show that a wide range of impedance values (both real and imaginary parts) can be achieved by changing the antenna geometry. This property makes LC-FDAs suitable for highperformance THz detectors in which impedance matching between antennas and devices is desired. From the currents calculated using EOA, the LC-FDA far-field radiation patterns, antenna directivity and Gaussian coupling efficiency for different lens structures have been examined using ray-tracing techniques. Good agreement between calculation results and measurement has been observed demonstrating the effectiveness of the above analysis approach. The single element FDA design has also been explored for use in high-resolution two-dimensional THz focal plane arrays by optimising the lens structure and evaluating the off-axis radiation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wet etch process that produces smooth sidewalls aligned with the m-plane ({...}) crystal facets of Ga-polar GaN grown on sapphire is demonstrated by combining photo-electrochemical (PEC) treatment with a postprocessing wet etch step. This novel process results in faceted and extremely smooth vertical etched sidewalls. This two-step process consists of a PEC treatment to define the geometry by converting the region to be removed to an oxide, followed by selective wet-chemical removal of the oxide in buffered HF and post-etch immersion in KOH (0.5 M) at 150 °C to smooth the surface and reveal the crystal planes. The dependence of the PEC treatment parameters (optical intensity, solution composition, direct current bias) on the resulting etch rates and morphology has been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double heterostructures of strained GaN quantum wells (QWs) sandwiched between relaxed AlN layers provide a platform to investigate the quantum-confined electronic and optical properties of the wells. The growth of AlN/GaN/AlN heterostructures with varying GaN quantum well thicknesses on AlN by plasma molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is reported. Photoluminescence spectra provide the optical signature of the thin GaN QWs. Reciprocal space mapping in X-ray diffraction shows that a GaN layer as thick as ~28 nm is compressively strained to the AlN layer underneath. The density of the polarization-induced two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the undoped heterostructures increases with the GaN QW thickness, reaching ~2.5×1013/cm². This provides a way to tune the 2DEG channel density without changing the thickness of the top barrier layer. Electron mobilities less than ~400 cm²/Vs are observed, leaving ample room for improvement. Nevertheless, owing to the high 2DEG density, strained GaN QW field-effect transistors with MBE regrown ohmic contacts exhibit an on-current density ~1.4A/mm, a transconductance ~280 mS/mm, and a cut off frequency fT ~ 104GHz for a 100-nm-gate-length device. These observations indicate high potential for high-speed radio frequency and high voltage applications that stand to benefit from the extreme-bandgap and high thermal conductivity of AlN.VC 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors investigate chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of gold. Our experiments show that the oxidizer concentration, hardness of the adhesion layer, and surfactants added to stabilize the slurry are the main factors determining the outcome of the process. A combination of 30% H2O2 solution and an alumina based slurry in 1:3 volumetric ratio along with added sodium dodecyl sulfate and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) was successfully used to pattern gold in a CMP Damascene process. After fabricating inlaid gold structures with CMP, the authors observed that pattern density, as opposed to feature size, is the major factor in determining the amount of metal thinning in inlaid features. 10 lm lines at 5% density were thinned down by 40 nm, while 150 μm pads at 75% density were recessed by 20 nm. The authors believe that in this process, metal recess, that is a chemical effect, outweighs dishing, a feature-size dependent factor, in controlling the severity of metal thinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first demonstration of high-Al-composition (> 70%) AlGaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is reported. High electron mobility (~1300 cm²/Vs at room temperature) was achieved in novel high-Al-composition AlGaN 2-D electron gas structures. The threshold voltages (Vth) of Al0.72Ga0.28N/AlN/GaN HEMTs were shifted from -1.0 to -0.13 V by employing different gate metal stacks, Al/Au and Ni/Au, respectively. With a 4-nm Al2O3 gate dielectric on top of the nitride heterostructures, the ~0.9-eV work-function difference between Al and Ni induced ~0.9-V Vth shift in the pairs of the Al/Au and Ni/Au gate HEMTs, which indicates that the Fermi level is unpinned at the ALD Al2O3/AlGaN interface. The results were reproducible for HEMTs of various gate lengths. The results suggest that it is possible to obtain enhancement- and depletion-mode AlGaN HEMTs using work-function engineering which can enable integrated monolithic digital circuits without postgrowth recess etching or ion implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GaAs/GaN pn heterojunction diodes have been fabricated by direct wafer fusion and characterized by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements and temperature dependent current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The wafer-fused pn diode showed a good rectifying behavior, but a small turn-on voltage was observed, which was attributed to defect-assisted tunneling-recombination. The flat-band voltage extracted from C-V is around 0.46 V, much smaller than the built-in voltage calculated for an ideal GaAs/GaN pn heterojunction. A band diagram including interface charge effects together with a possible energy barrier, stemming from a layer of disordered material at the fused GaAs/GaN interface, has been proposed to explain the experimental observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface potential distribution across lateral Ni–(Al)GaN Schottky junctions was measured by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. The bare surface barrier heights of unintentionally doped Al0.22Ga0.78N and n-GaN in air were estimated to be ∼1.15 and 0.7 eV, respectively. Upon 364.5 nm (band edge for GaN) illumination, the surface barriers of both n-GaN and AlGaN/GaN were observed to decrease. The minority carrier diffusion length in n-GaN (Si∼3.5×1017 cm-3) was extracted from the surface photovoltage profile near the Schottky junction, ∼1.8±0.4 μm. The scanning Kelvin probe surface photovoltage technique for measuring minority carrier diffusion length, while similar to the electron beam induced current technique, offers greater accuracy and higher spatial resolution due to separation of the minority carrier excitation source (relatively large area, above band gap light beam) from the nanometer-size probe (scanning force microscope tip). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a comparative study of the mobility of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEG) formed at AlGaN/GaN heterostructures by simultaneously growing on substrates with very different dislocation densities. The mobility is seen to depend on the 2DEG charge density directly, but surprisingly, dislocations do not cause a discernible impact on the mobility of the samples within the measured region <25 000 cm2 V−1 s−1. This experimental observation questions the generally accepted belief that dislocations are one of the dominant low-temperature scattering mechanisms for low-density 2DEG at AlGaN/GaN structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ga2O3 vertical trench Schottky barrier diodes with four different fin-channel orientations are realized on (001) substrates and compared. Fin-channels along the [010] direction with (100)-like sidewalls result in the highest forward current, while other channel orientations all lead to a shallow turn-on behavior and much lower forward current, indicative of severe sidewall depletion attributed to negative interface charges. The comparison indicates that the interface charge density is the smallest on the (100)-like surfaces. The breakdown voltage of the diodes with 1-μm fin width is around 2.4 kV, with no apparent dependence on the channel orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GaN PolarMOS is a vertical power transistor incorporating the unique polarization-induced bulk doping scheme in III-nitrides for the body p-n junction. We report the realization of this device, wherein the vertical channel, source contact, and body contact regions are successfully formed using three steps of selective-area epitaxial regrowth, all by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The fabricated PolarMOS has an excellent on-current of >500 mA mm−1 and a specific on-resistance of 0.66 mΩ · cm2. The reverse breakdown mechanisms of the PolarMOS are investigated. First, a pronounced source-drain vertical leakage is identified and attributed to the passivation of the buried p-type body, which is subsequently resolved by the sidewall activation method. With the body leakage eliminated, the breakdown voltage is found to be limited by a highly conductive path along the regrowth sidewall interface using the conductive scanning probe technique, despite the absence of apparent structural defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nitride semiconductor materials GaN, AlN, and InN, and their alloys and heterostructures have been investigated extensively in the last 3 decades, leading to several technologically successful photonic and electronic devices. Just over the past few years, a number of “new” nitride materials have emerged with exciting photonic, electronic, and magnetic properties. Some examples are 2D and layered hBN and the III–V diamond analog cBN, the transition metal nitrides ScN, YN, and their alloys (e.g. ferroelectric ScAlN), piezomagnetic GaMnN, ferrimagnetic Mn4N, and epitaxial superconductor/semiconductor NbN/GaN heterojunctions. This article reviews the fascinating and emerging physics and science of these new nitride materials. It also discusses their potential applications in future generations of devices that take advantage of the photonic and electronic devices eco-system based on transistors, light-emitting diodes, and lasers that have already been created by nitride semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry etching behavior of unintentionally-doped β-Ga2O3 has been studied in a BCl3/Ar chemistry using inductively-coupled-plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE). The effects of various etch parameters like ICP and RIE powers, BCl3/Ar gas ratio and chamber pressure on etch rate are studied systematically. Higher ICP, RIE powers and lower pressure conditions are found to enhance the etch rate. A synergic etching mechanism between chemical and physical components is proposed and used to obtain fast Ga2O3 etch rates more than 160 nm/min, nearly-vertical sidewalls and smooth etched surfaces. The findings of this work will enable Ga2O3 vertical devices for power electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report tunable deep-ultraviolet (DUV) emission over the 222–231 nm range from 1–2 monolayer (ML) GaN quantum disks (QDs) grown in an AlN matrix. The linewidth of the emission were as narrow as ∼10 nm at 5 K. The disks were grown in modified Stranski–Krastanov (mSK) mode. High resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images confirmed insertion of 1–2 MLs of GaN between 3 nm AlN barriers. The internal quantum efficiency was estimated from low temperature photoluminescence measurements for the disks, and compared with 1 and 2 ML GaN quantum wells/AlN barriers. The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the GaN QDs was found to be ∼35% for 222 nm emission, ∼200% higher than 1 ML GaN QWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of high-quality thick InN films is challenging because of the lack of native substrates. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a linearly graded InGaN buffer layer for the growth of InN films on GaN substrates. A 500 nm InN film with <0.1 nm RMS roughness is obtained with a peak mobility of 1410 cm2/(V·s) at 300 K. A strong room temperature photoluminescence showing a bandgap of 0.65 eV with 79 meV linewidth is observed. A graded InGaN buffer is found to lead to extremely smooth and high-quality InN films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Single-photon defect emitters (SPEs), especially those with magnetically and optically addressable spin states, in technologically mature wide bandgap semiconductors are attractive for realizing integrated platforms for quantum applications. Broadening of the zero phonon line (ZPL) caused by dephasing in solid state SPEs limits the indistinguishability of the emitted photons. Dephasing also limits the use of defect states in quantum information processing, sensing, and metrology. In most defect emitters, such as those in SiC and diamond, interaction with low-energy acoustic phonons determines the temperature dependence of the dephasing rate and the resulting broadening of the ZPL with the temperature obeys a power law. GaN hosts bright and stable single-photon emitters in the 600–700 nm wavelength range with strong ZPLs even at room temperature. In this work, we study the temperature dependence of the ZPL spectra of GaN SPEs integrated with solid immersion lenses with the goal of understanding the relevant dephasing mechanisms. At temperatures below ~ 50 K, the ZPL lineshape is found to be Gaussian and the ZPL linewidth is temperature independent and dominated by spectral diffusion. Above ~ 50 K, the linewidth increases monotonically with the temperature and the lineshape evolves into a Lorentzian. Quite remarkably, the temperature dependence of the linewidth does not follow a power law. We propose a model in which dephasing caused by absorption/emission of optical phonons in an elastic Raman process determines the temperature dependence of the lineshape and the linewidth. Our model explains the temperature dependence of the ZPL linewidth and lineshape in the entire 10–270 K temperature range explored in this work. The ~ 19 meV optical phonon energy extracted by fitting the model to the data matches remarkably well the ~ 18 meV zone center energy of the lowest optical phonon band ( $$E_{2}(low)$$ E 2 ( l o w ) ) in GaN. Our work sheds light on the mechanisms responsible for linewidth broadening in GaN SPEs. Since a low energy optical phonon band ( $$E_{2}(low)$$ E 2 ( l o w ) ) is a feature of most group III–V nitrides with a wurtzite crystal structure, including hBN and AlN, we expect our proposed mechanism to play an important role in defect emitters in these materials as well.

Silicon substrates offer an attractive substrate platform for GaN RF and power electronics. In this work, we address the key challenges and provide solutions for the RF-MBE growth of GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on Si(111). Moreover, by developing low-leakage buffer layers and employing raised source/drain regrown ohmic contacts, high-performance HEMTs are realized at a significantly lower process temperature by plasma MBE than by MOCVD. This is expected to motivate further ideas for the integration of GaN with silicon that go beyond RF and power electronics into the regime of low-power digital logic by exploiting the unique polarization properties of GaN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "High-voltage field effect transistors with wide-bandgap β-Ga2O3 nanomembranes" by Wan Sik Hwang and others that was published in the May 2014 issue of the journal is presented.