Electrical properties of AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructures with low Al content

Electrical properties of Al_xGa_1−xN/GaN heterostructures with an Al content below 15% and carrier concentrations as low as 1.0 × 10¹² cm⁻² were investigated by Hall effect measurements and capacitance–voltage profiling. The nominally undoped GaN capped structures were grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. The threshold voltage of transistor devices follows the trend already found for high Al-containing structures, which are described by a model indicating a surface potential independent of Al content. Photoreflectance spectroscopy confirms the results for as-grown heterostructures. The Hall effect measured on the as-grown samples, however, shows a stronger decrease in carrier concentration than expected from the effect of polarization and constant surface potential. In contrast, Hall effect data determined on samples with Ni Schottky contacts and capacitance-voltage profiling on as-grown samples yield the expected behavior, with surface potentials of 0.86 eV and 0.94 eV, respectively. The inconsistency is eliminated by describing the results of the Hall effect on as-grown samples by a two-carrier model. Self-consistent Schrödinger–Poisson calculations support these considerations if we take into account a transition range at the Al_xGa_1−xN/GaN interface.