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. 2017 Mar 14:7:44223.
doi: 10.1038/srep44223.

Experimental evidences for reducing Mg activation energy in high Al-content AlGaN alloy by MgGa δ doping in (AlN)m/(GaN)n superlattice

Xiao Wang  1 , Wei Wang  1 , Jingli Wang  1 , Hao Wu  1 , Chang Liu  1
Affiliations

Experimental evidences for reducing Mg activation energy in high Al-content AlGaN alloy by MgGa δ doping in (AlN)m/(GaN)n superlattice

Xiao Wang et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

P-type doping in high Al-content AlGaN alloys is a main challenge for realizing AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet optoelectronics devices. According to the first-principles calculations, Mg activation energy may be reduced so that a high hole concentration can be obtained by introducing nanoscale (AlN)5/(GaN)1 superlattice (SL) in Al0.83Ga0.17N disorder alloy. In this work, experimental evidences were achieved by analyzing Mg doped high Al-content AlGaN alloys and Mg doped AlGaN SLs as well as MgGa δ doped AlGaN SLs. Mg acceptor activation energy was significantly reduced from 0.378 to 0.331 eV by using MgGa δ doping in SLs instead of traditional doping in alloys. This new process was confirmed to be able to realize high p-type doping in high Al-content AlGaN.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Two loops of the growth process of sample D5.
The solid and blank lines indicates open and close of the source shutters, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2. XRD spectra of AlGaN films.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Cross-sectional HRTEM image of AlGaN/Al2O3 in sample D5. (b) The magnified HRTEM image of AlGaN superlattices in sample D5. (c) FFT image of (b).
Figure 4
Figure 4
I-V characteristics of (a) sample D4, (b) sample D5 and (c) sample D6 at different temperatures. The insets show the corresponding Arrhenius plots of the resistivity versus temperature. The ionization energy of Mg in AlGaN in sample D4, D5 and D6 was determined to be 0.344, 0.331 and 0.311 eV, respectively.
Figure 5
Figure 5. The dependence of EA on Al composition in AlxGa1−xN with three doping methods.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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