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In GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBD), there is a trade-off between the turn-on voltage and the leakage current. In this study, recess-free 4 nm-thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN SBDs with minimal leakage current as well as excellent turn-on voltage homogeneity are developed, which enable better electrical control to pinch off the 2DEG channel under the anode region and avoids trap introduced in the barrier etching process. In detail, the effect of reverse stress on the SBD performance is initially explored by using differential conductance, and then, the anode-to-cathode distances and temperatures dependence of SBDs output characteristics are systematically studied. The fabricated thin-barrier GaN SBDs show a turn-on voltage of ∼0.75 V and a low level leakage current of 9.66 × 10−10 (1.91 × 10−8) A/mm at 300 (423) K, which is among the lowest reported values at the comparable reverse bias voltage and temperature. Moreover, structure parameters of the thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN SBD are systematically modeled and optimized by the TCAD simulations, including anode metal work function, Al mole fraction, the anode-to-cathode distance, and slanted anode angle. The introduction of slanted anode is found to have significant effect on the improvement of reverse breakdown voltage and leakage current characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-performance AlGaN/GaN-based ultraviolet photodetector with a field-enhanced mechanism for photocurrent collection is designed and fabricated in this work. In addition to the inherent polarization field, two additional sets of collection fields are formed from a 2DEG layer to a ITO thin film and from the 2DEG layer to a cathode electrode sinker. The effectiveness in the collection of photogenerated carriers is remarkably enhanced, which leads to a photocurrent of 6.6 mA/mm under the illumination of 365 nm-centered ultraviolet light at an intensity of 1.8 mW/cm2. With an in-built shallow isolation trench, the dark current is suppressed below 40 pA/mm under a device bias of 5.0 V. A photo-to-dark current ratio as high as 1.7 × 108, a record high photo-responsivity over 4.3 × 106 A/W, and a high gain of 1.46 × 107 under 365-nm light are demonstrated by the fabricated prototype, showing great competitiveness in state-of-the-art AlGaN/GaN-based ultraviolet photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good magnetic field sensor should exhibit high sensitivity, low power consumption, and low output offset to accurately detect small fields. In this work, the high sensitivity in magnetoresistance variation (ΔR) is achieved by the AlGaN/GaN fin-shaped high electron mobility structure, in comparison to that of planar structures. A physical based analysis is presented to describe the influence of the fin width dimension on the ΔR dependency under magnetic fields. The sensitivity is expressed as a function of geometric parameters, electron mobility, and two-dimensional electron sheet density, with relaxation of polarization, shoulder density distribution, and sidewall trapped charges considered. Devices were fabricated, and a high sensitivity is observed in laboratory measurements on devices at narrower fin widths. At the fin width of 50 nm, the measured device has a sensitivity of 0.76 Ω/μΤ2 at the magnetic flux of 85 μΤ. The sensor's power consumption is as low as 48 μW, and the minimum magnetic flux detectable is at 20 μΤ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, the suppression of dynamic on-state resistance (RON) degradation for faster dynamic RON recovery is achieved by the multimesa-channel (MMC) structure in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors. The measurement results are discussed with the physical mechanisms investigated. The initial transient RON degradation is reduced in the MMC structure, resulting from the lower peak electric field around the drain-side gate edge in the trigate structure compared to that in a planar device. The faster dynamic RON recovery in MMC devices is attributed to the quick emission of electrons at sidewall traps of shallower energy levels. The energy levels of dominant traps at the sidewall and top interfaces are found to be 0.26 eV and 0.37 eV below the conduction band edge, respectively, verified by Technology Computer Aided Design simulations in agreement with the measurement data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic responses, including photovoltage, photocurrent, illuminated J-V curve, and light-to-electricity power conversion efficiency, were investigated in chemical-solution-derived polycrystalline and epitaxial (Pb0.97La0.03)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PLZT) thin films sandwiched between different metal and oxide electrodes. The epitaxial PLZT films with Au/PLZT/Nb-doped SrTiO3 structure exhibited about one order of magnitude larger photocurrent and efficiency over the randomly oriented polycrystalline PLZT films with Au/PLZT/Pt structure due to the high crystalline quality with the reduced defects and enhanced depolarization field. The illuminated J-V curve was approximately linear for both polycrystalline and epitaxial PLZT thin films. The nonzero photovoltaic outputs in the unpoled films were induced by asymmetric interfacial Schottky barriers. The illuminated J-V curve shifted toward the positive voltage direction after positive poling and toward the negative voltage direction after negative poling, and the enhancement of efficiency only occurred when the polarization direction accorded with the direction of Schottky barrier difference at the two electrode interfaces. Thickness dependences of photovoltage, photocurrent, and light-to-electricity conversion efficiency were also examined. It was observed that photovoltage linearly increased with film thickness while both photocurrent and efficiency exponentially increased with the decrease in thickness. Furthermore, at a fixed small film thickness, efficiency was also found to increase reciprocally with the decrease of incident UV intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric (Pb0.97,La0.03)(Zr0.52,Ti0.48)O3 thin films in different thicknesses were fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates through a sol-gel process. Film thickness dependence of photoinduced current was investigated under the illumination of ultraviolet light. A theoretical model was developed to describe the thickness-dependent photocurrent. Both the theoretical model and experimental results showed that the photocurrent increases exponentially with the decrease in film thickness. However, photocurrent may drop in the films with the very small thickness of tens of nanometers and below in which the small size effect of ferroelectricity is considered. This model also reveals the relationship between the photocurrent and the internal electric field or remnant polarization and predicts a small diffusion current in the opposite direction at very low field or polarization region. These results provide useful guides for the design of ferroelectric film photovoltaic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a normally-off AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT with improved threshold voltage (VTH) thermal stability is reported with investigations on its physical mechanism. The normally-off operation of the device is achieved from novel short argon plasma treatment (APT) prior to the fluorine plasma treatment (FPT) on Al2O3 gate dielectrics. For the MIS-HEMT with FPT only, its VTH drops from 4.2V at room temperature to 0.5V at 200 °C. Alternatively, for the device with APT-then-FPT process, its VTH can retain at 2.5V at 200 °C due to the increased amount of deep-level traps that do not emit electrons at 200 °C. This thermally stable VTH makes this device suitable for high power applications. The depth profile of the F atoms in Al2O3, measured by the secondary ion mass spectroscopy, reveals a significant increase in the F concentration when APT is conducted prior to FPT. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis on the plasma-treated Al2O3 surfaces observes higher composition of Al-F bonds if APT was applied before FPT. The enhanced breaking of Al-O bonds due to Ar bombardment assisted in the increased incorporation of F radicals at the surface during the subsequent FPT process. The Schrödinger equation of Al2OxFy cells, with the same Al-F compositions as obtained from XPS, was solved by Gaussian 09 molecular simulations to extract electron state distribution as a function of energy. The simulation results show creation of the deeper trap states in the Al2O3 bandgap when APT is used before FPT. Finally, the trap distribution extracted from the simulations is verified by the gate-stress experimental characterization to confirm the physical mechanism described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering energy band alignment and polarization effect, ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films are proposed as the photoanode in a monolithic cell to achieve unassisted photocatalytic water splitting. Significant anodic photocurrent was observed in our epitaxial ferroelectric BiFeO3 films prepared from sputter deposition. Both negative polarization charges and thinner films were found to promote the anodic photocatalytic reaction. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy proved that the conduction and valence band edges of BiFeO3 straddle the water redox levels. Theoretical analyses show that the large switchable polarization can modify the surface properties to promote the hydrogen and oxygen evolutions on the surfaces with positive and negative polarization charges, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was discovered that the dielectric constant of the electrodes substantially determines the photovoltaic output in (Pb0.97La0.03)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 ferroelectric thin films. With the screening charges distributed extensively away from the electrode interfaces, the use of the electrodes with a high dielectric constant gives rise to dramatically enhanced magnitude of photocurrent in photovoltaic thin films, and extremely high photovoltaic efficiency is theoretically predicted to be possible in ferroelectric ultrathin films or nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric thin films with thickness below 100 nm was investigated through both theoretical and experimental approaches. Unprecedented high photovoltaic power conversion efficiency around ∼0.28% was achieved with epitaxial (Pb0.97La0.03)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 ferroelectric thin films, which is about 2 orders of magnitude higher than the reported in literature for ferroelectrics. Theoretical analysis indicated that efficiency can be further significantly improved by reducing the thickness in nanoscale. Extremely high efficient bulk photovoltaic effect is predicted in high quality ferroelectric ultrathin films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Thickness effects on photoinduced current in ferroelectric (Pb0.97La0.03)(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thin films," by Meng Qin, Kui Yao, Yung C. Liang, and Santiranjan Shannigrahi in issue 101 (2007) is presented.