Influence of AlN/GaN interfacial non-idealities on the properties of two-dimensional electron gas in AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures

The influence of two types of AlN/GaN interfacial non-idealities, namely unintentional Ga incorporation into AlN spacer and blurring of the spacer due to Al and/or Ga atomic diffusion on the mobility and density of two-dimensional electron gas in AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure was studied theoretically. It was found that moderate amount of GaN in the nominal AlN spacer does not affect much the mobility and density of 2DEG as long as the interface is abrupt. In contrast, the blurring of AlN/GaN interface was found to have a significant impact on the mobility and sheet resistance of the structure since the GaN channel actually becomes AlGaN and alloy-disorder scattering takes place.