Optical and structural studies of Hg0.7Cd0.3Te samples grown by various methods

Photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for the studies of the properties of HgCdTe samples with CdTe molar fraction x=0.3 grown by various methods. According to the results of photoluminescence studies, all samples possessed a considerable degree of alloy disorder, yet the scale of the disorder seemed not to be directly related to the structural quality of the material as revealed using XRD. Prospects of using HgCdTe material grown by various methods in optoelectronic devices are discussed.

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.

Ensemble Monte Carlo Simulation of Hole Transport in SiGe Alloys

This paper employs Ensemble Monte Carlo method to simulate transport of holes in SiGe alloys. A three-band model was employed to describe the valence band of these alloys. The nonparabolicity and the warping effect of the heavy-hole and light-hole bands were considered in their dispersion relation, while the split-off band was described as parabolic and spherical. We consider phonon and alloy disorder scattering in these calculations. The mobility of holes for a range of SiGe al-loys was calculated at 300K. The simulation mobility results agree with the experimental data, implying that the selected transport model for holes in SiGe alloys is adequate.

Disorder effects in nitride semiconductors: impact on fundamental and device properties

Semiconductor structures used for fundamental or device applications most often incorporate alloy materials. In “usual” or “common” III–V alloys, based on the InGaAsP or InGaAlAs material systems, the effects of compositional disorder on the electronic properties can be treated in a perturbative approach. This is not the case in the more recent nitride-based GaInAlN alloys, where the potential changes associated with the various atoms induce strong localization effects, which cannot be described perturbatively. Since the early studies of these materials and devices, disorder effects have indeed been identified to play a major role in their properties. Although many studies have been performed on the structural characterization of materials, on intrinsic electronic localization properties, and on the impact of disorder on device operation, there are still many open questions on all these topics. Taking disorder into account also leads to unmanageable problems in simulations. As a prerequisite to address material and device simulations, a critical examination of experiments must be considered to ensure that one measures intrinsic parameters as these materials are difficult to grow with low defect densities. A specific property of nitride semiconductors that can obscure intrinsic properties is the strong spontaneous and piezoelectric fields. We outline in this review the remaining challenges faced when attempting to fully describe nitride-based material systems, taking the examples of LEDs. The objectives of a better understanding of disorder phenomena are to explain the hidden phenomena often forcing one to use ad hoc parameters, or additional poorly defined concepts, to make simulations agree with experiments. Finally, we describe a novel simulation tool based on a mathematical breakthrough to solve the Schrödinger equation in disordered potentials that facilitates 3D simulations that include alloy disorder.

Doping-Dependent Nonlinear Electron Mobility in GaAs|In-=SUB=-x-=/SUB=-Ga-=SUB=-1-x-=/SUB=-As Coupled Quantum-Well Pseudo-Morphic MODFET Structure

We analyze the asymmetric delta-doping dependence of nonlinear electron mobility μ of GaAs|InxGa1-xAs double quantum-well pseudo-morphic modulation doped field-effect transistor structure. We solve the Schrodinger and Poisson's equations self-consistently to obtain the sub-band energy levels and wave functions. We consider scatterings due to the ionized impurities (IMP), alloy disorder (AL), and interface roughness (IR) to calculate μ for a system having double sub-band occupancy, in which the inter-sub-band effects play an important role. Considering the doping concentrations in the barriers towards the substrate and surface sides as Nd1 and Nd2, respectively, we show that variation of Nd1 leads to a dip in μ near Nd1=Nd2, at which the resonance of the sub-band states occurs. A similar dip in μ as a function of Nd1 is also obtained at Nd1=Nd2 by keeping (Nd1+Nd2) unchanged. By increasing the central barrier width and well width, the dip in μ becomes sharp. We note that even though the overall μ is governed by the IMP- and AL-scatterings, the dip in μ is mostly affected through substantial variation of the sub-band mobilities due to IR-scattering near the resonance. Our results of nonlinear electron mobility near the resonance of sub-band states can be utilized for the performance analysis of GaAs|InGaAs pseudo-morphic quantum-well field-effect transistors. Keywords: asymmetric double quantum wells, GaAs|InxGa1-xAs structures, nonlinear electron mobility, pseudo-morphic HEMT structures, resonance of sub-band states.