Conductive layer near the GaN/sapphire interface and its effect on electron transport in unintentionally doped n-type GaN epilayers

Temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements on unintentionally doped n-type GaN epilayers show that, above room temperature, the Hall-mobility values of different samples vary parallel with each other with temperature. We demonstrate that this anomaly is mainly due to a conductive layer near the GaN/sapphire interface for thin samples with low carrier density. Through trapping electrons, threading edge dislocations (TEDs) debilitate the epilayer contribution in a two-layer mixed conduction model involving the epilayer and the near-interface layer. The trapping may, in part, explain low mobility and anomalous transport in pure GaN layers. Scattering by TEDs is important only at low temperatures.