Deep centers and persistent photocapacitance in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor structures grown on Si substrates

Deep trap spectra in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor structures grown on Si by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition show four major electron traps (Ec—0.15, 0.29, 0.40 and 0.76 eV) in the AlGaN barrier/interface region and three (Ec—0.18, 0.27 and 0.45 eV) in the undoped GaN buffer region. The presence of a high density of deep acceptor traps was observed in the AlGaN barrier region, as determined by hysteresis in low temperature capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics. The spectral dependence of persistent photocapacitance shifts showed two optical thresholds of 1.5 V and 3.1 eV, with the second being specific to structures grown on Si substrates. Comparison of results obtained on transistors and on large-area Schottky diodes prepared on heterostructures from which transistors are fabricated show that measurements on test large-area diodes are representative of the main characteristics important for transistor performance.