Electrical Properties of Heavily Be-doped GaAs grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Electrical properties of heavily Be-doped GaAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy were investigated systematically in a wide range of Be-concentration from 1× 1014 up to 2× 1020 cm-3 by using yan der Pauw technique. Probable carrier scattering mechanisms observed in this work are discussed by taking into account the radiative mechanisms of several new photoluminescence emissions previously observed in the band-edge-emission region of the samples. All samples were checked their electrical properties first at room-temperature. Five selected samples out of them were measured from 10° K up to room-temperature. Samples having the carrier concentration from 1014 to 1018 cm3 presented typical semiconductor-like conduction with finite carrier excitation energy. For samples having carrier concentration 7× 1016 cm -3, the conduction mechanism at high temperature region above 30β K was dominated by holes thermally excited into valence band. At low temperature region below 30° K . it was dominated by holes hopping from neutral to ionized acceptors with the assistance of phonons. Hole mobilities of samples having the carrier concentration from 1017 to 1018 cm-3 showed an anomalous behavior in the low temperature region, which suggests the presence of a new type of carrier scattering mechanism. A radiative center denoted by lg-gl observed in this concentration region will be a candidate scattering center to explain these electrical behaviors. Samples having the carrier concentration larger than 1019 cm-3 demonstrated typically metallic electric conduction not owing to thermally excited carriers, which means that an impurity band is formed but merged with valence band. The density of state of this combined valence band mixed with impurity band can be supposed to reflect carrier concentration dependence of the PL emission bands observed in this region, i.e. [g-g]α , [g-g]β and [g-g]γ .