Electron transport in AlGaN/GaN HEMT-like nanowires: Effect of depletion and UV excitation

In this work, we have investigated the features of electron transport in AlGaN/GaN transistor-like heterostructures with nanowires of different width. These nanostructures are studied extensively because of their great electronic and sensing advantages for electronic biosensor applications. We study the depletion effects and impact of ultraviolet excitation on the electron transport in sets of nanowires of different width from 1110 down to 185 nm. We have found significant difference in electrical characteristic’s behavior between wide (1110…480 nm) and narrow (280…185 nm) nanowires and have observed regions related to space-charge-limited transport for the narrowest nanowires. Also, we obtained evident dependence of nanowire’s current-voltage characteristics on the wavelength and energy of UV excitation. External UV excitation allows us to control the depletion widths in nanowires and effectively tune space-charge-limited transport.