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The early stages of InGaN/GaN quantum well growth for In-reduced conditions have been investigated for varying thickness and composition of the wells. The structures were studied by monochromated scanning transmission electron microscopy-valence electron energy loss spectroscopy spectrum imaging at high spatial resolution. It is found that beyond a critical well thickness and composition, quantum dots (width >20 nm) are formed inside the well. These are buried by compositionally graded InGaN, which is formed as GaN is grown while residual In is incorporated into the growing structure. It is proposed that these dots act as carrier localization centers inside the quantum wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By carefully controlling the surface chemistry of the chemical vapor deposition process for silicon carbide (SiC), 100 μm thick epitaxial layers with excellent morphology were grown on 4° off-axis SiC substrates at growth rates exceeding 100 μm/h. In order to reduce the formation of step bunching and structural defects, mainly triangular defects, the effect of varying parameters such as growth temperature, C/Si ratio, Cl/Si ratio, Si/H2 ratio, and in situ pre-growth surface etching time are studied. It was found that an in-situ pre growth etch at growth temperature and pressure using 0.6% HCl in hydrogen for 12 min reduced the structural defects by etching preferentially on surface damages of the substrate surface. By then applying a slightly lower growth temperature of 1575 °C, a C/Si ratio of 0.8, and a Cl/Si ratio of 5, 100 μm thick, step-bunch free epitaxial layer with a minimum triangular defect density and excellent morphology could be grown, thus enabling SiC power device structures to be grown on 4° off axis SiC substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A technique for the measurement of the electron velocity versus electric field is demonstrated on as-grown and H-intercalated graphene. Van der Pauw, coplanar microbridge, and coplanar TLM structures are fabricated in order to assess the carrier mobility, carrier concentration, sheet resistance, and contact resistance of both epi-materials. These measurements are then combined with dynamic IV measurements to extract a velocity-field characteristic. The saturated electron velocity measurements indicate a value of 2.33 × 107cm/s for the as-grown material and 1.36 × 107cm/s for the H-intercalated material at 300 K. Measurements are taken as a function of temperature from 100 K to 325 K in order to estimate the optical phonon energy Eso of 4H-SiC by assuming an impurity scattering model. The extracted values of Eso are 97 meV for the as-grown sample and 115 meV for the H-intercalated sample. The H-intercalated result correlates to the anticipated value of 116 meV for 4H-SiC, while the as-grown value is significantly below the expected value. Therefore, we hypothesize that the transport properties of epitaxial graphene on SiC are influenced both by intercalation and by remote phonon scattering with the SiC substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep levels were detected in Fe-doped n- and p-type 4H-SiC using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). One defect level (EC-0.39 eV) was detected in n-type material. DLTS spectra of p-type 4H-SiC show two dominant peaks (EV + 0.97 eV and EV + 1.46 eV). Secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements confirm the presence of Fe in both n- and p-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layers. The majority of the capture process for Fe1, Fe2, and Fe3 is multi-phonon emission assisted. These three detected peaks are suggested to be related to Fe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After low-energy electron irradiation of epitaxial n-type 4H-SiC with a dose of 5×1016 cm-2, the bistable M-center, previously reported in high-energy proton implanted 4H-SiC, is detected in the deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) spectrum. The annealing behavior of the M-center is confirmed, and an enhanced recombination process is suggested. The annihilation process is coincidental with the evolvement of the bistable EB-centers in the low temperature range of the DLTS spectrum. The annealing energy of the M-center is similar to the generation energy of the EB-centers, thus partial transformation of the M-center to the EB-centers is suggested. The EB-centers completely disappeared after annealing temperatures higher than 700 °C without the formation of new defects in the observed DLTS scanning range. The threshold energy for moving Si atom in SiC is higher than the applied irradiation energy, and the annihilation temperatures are relatively low, therefore the M-center, EH1 and EH3, as well as the EB-centers are attributed to defects related to the C atom in SiC, most probably to carbon interstitials and their complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor-acceptor pair luminescence of P-Al and N-Al pairs in 3C-SiC is analyzed. The structures in the spectra corresponding to recombination of pairs at intermediate distances are fitted with theoretical spectra of type I (P-Al pairs) and type II (N-Al pairs). It is shown that in the regions chosen for fitting the line positions obey the equation hω(R)=EG-ED-EA+e2/[variant_greek_epsilon]R, where hω(R) is the energy of the photon emitted by recombination of a pair at a distance R, e is the electron charge, [variant_greek_epsilon] is the static dielectric constant, and EG, ED, and EA are the electronic band gap and the donor and acceptor ionization energies, respectively. The fits yield the values EG-ED-EA for the N-Al (2094 meV) and P-Al (2100.1 meV) cases. Using the known value of the nitrogen ionization energy, 54.2 meV, phosphorus ionization energy of 48.1 meV is obtained. Identification of the sharp lines corresponding to recombination of close pairs in the P-Al spectrum is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacitance-voltage [C(V)] measurements of metal-insulator-semiconductor-heterostructure capacitors are used to investigate the interface between silicon nitride passivation and AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure material. AlGaN/AlN/GaN samples having different silicon nitride passivating layers, deposited using three different deposition techniques, are evaluated. Different interface state distributions result in large differences in the C(V) characteristics. A method to extract fixed charge as well as traps from the C(V) characteristics is presented. Rough estimates of the emission time constants of the traps can be extracted by careful analysis of the C(V) characteristics. The fixed charge is positive for all samples, with a density varying between 1.3×1012 and 7.1×1012 cm-2. For the traps, the peak density of interface states is varying between 16×1012 and 31×1012 cm-2 eV-1 for the three samples. It is concluded that, of the deposition methods investigated in this report, the low pressure chemical vapor deposited silicon nitride passivation shows the most promising results with regards to low densities of interface states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlGaN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor heterostructures grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition have been studied by temperature dependent time-resolved photoluminescence. The AlGaN-related emission is found to be sensitive to the excitation power and to the built-in internal electric field. In addition, this emission shows a shift to higher energy with the reduction in the excitation density, which is rather unusual. Using a self-consistent calculation of the band potential profile, we suggest a recombination mechanism for the AlGaN-related emission involving electrons confined in the triangular AlGaN quantum well and holes weakly localized due to potential fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical detection of magnetic resonance (ODMR) was used to study defects in ZnO substrates irradiated with 3 MeV electrons at room temperature. The Zn vacancy and some other ODMR centers were detected. Among these, the Zn vacancy and two other centers, labeled as LU3 and LU4, were also commonly observed in different types of as-grown ZnO substrates. The LU3 and LU4 are related to intrinsic defects and act as dominating recombination centers in irradiated and as-grown ZnO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With low energy electron irradiation in the 80–250 keV range, we were able to create only those intrinsic defects related to the initial displacements of carbon atoms in the silicon carbide lattice. Radiation induced majority and minority carrier traps were analyzed using capacitance transient techniques. Four electron traps (EH1, Z1/Z2, EH3, and EH7) and one hole trap (HS2) were detected in the measured temperature range. Their concentrations show linear increase with the irradiation dose, indicating that no divacancies or di-interstitials are generated. None of the observed defects was found to be an intrinsic defect–impurity complex. The energy dependence of the defect introduction rates and annealing behavior are presented and possible microscopic models for the defects are discussed. No further defects were detected for electron energies above the previously assigned threshold for the displacement of the silicon atom at 250 keV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have implemented graphite, graphite-tantalum (Ta), and Ta growth environment to the sublimation epitaxy of aluminum nitride (AlN) and have studied development, morphological, and cathodoluminescence emission properties of AlN crystallites. Three apparently different types of crystallites form in the three different types of growth environment, which presumably manifests the relationship between crystallite-habit-type and impurities. Comparison between the cathodoluminescence spectra reveals certain dynamics in the incorporation into AlN of the main residual dopants, oxygen and carbon, when the growth environment changes. At high temperatures, in addition to Al and N2, which constitute the vapor over AlN, vapor molecules of CN, NO, Al2C, and many more can be present in the vapor from which AlN grows and both oxygen and carbon can be incorporated into AlN in varying ratios. Involving calculations of the cohesive energy per atom of such vapor molecules and also of Ta containing molecules, we have considered possible mechanisms how oxygen and carbon get incorporated into AlN and how this kinetics interferes with the growth environment. The positive effect of Ta consists in the marked reduction of residual oxygen and carbon impurities in the vapor from which AlN is growing. However, on the account of this reduction, the overall composition of the vapor changes. We speculate that during AlN nucleation stage small impurity levels may be beneficial in order to provide a better balance between the AlN crystallites development and impurity incorporation issues. We have shown that some impurity containing vapor molecules are acting as essential transport agents and suppliers of nitrogen for the AlN growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical degradation of 4H–SiC PiN diodes has recently attracted much interest and is a critical material problem for high power applications. The degradation is caused by stacking faults observed as an increased forward voltage drop after forward injection operation. In this article we have combined electrical, optical, and structural techniques to study the formation and growth of the stacking faults causing degradation. We will show three different sources causing two different types of stacking fault properties. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of a study of the origins of the peak near 3838 Å observed in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of 4H-SiC. For n[sup +]-doped 4H-SiC material, it appears as a broad peak that is shown to be related to high-level nitrogen doping, with an energy position depending on the nitrogen concentration. A similar band is observed for 6H material, displaced in energy position by the band-gap difference between the two polytypes. A sharp peak near 3838 Å in the 4H-SiC PL spectrum has a phonon structure containing localized modes. This recombination leading to this PL line is most likely associated with an isoelectronic complex defect. The present results allow a better understanding of the PL spectrum of a low-doped epilayer grown on a heavily doped substrate. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied intrinsic and impurity related defects in silicon carbide (SiC) epilayers grown with fast epitaxy using chemical vapor deposition in a vertical hot-wall reactor. Using capacitance transient techniques, we have detected low concentrations of electron traps (denoted as Z[sub ½], EH6/7 and titanium) and hole traps (denoted as HS1 and shallow boron) in the n-type 4H-SiC epilayers. The concentration of intrinsic defects (Z[sub ½], EH6/7, and HS1 centers) increases with increasing growth temperature. The incorporation of shallow boron (B) decreases at higher growth temperatures, whereas the titanium (Ti) concentration is not sensitive to the growth temperature. The concentration of shallow B and Ti increases with increasing C/Si ratio. The concentration of the EH6/7 and the HS1 centers however, decreases with increasing C/Si ratio. We have also tested graphite susceptors with TaC or SiC coating and observed that the purity of the susceptor material plays a critical role in reducing the background impurity incorporation. The correlation with the carrier lifetime of these epilayers indicates that the EH6/7 and the Z[sub ½] centers may be the lifetime limiting defects in the investigated epilayers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]