Characteristics of submicron gate GaAs FET's with Al0.3Ga0.7As buffers: Effects of interface quality

GaAs field effect transistors (FET's) having submicron gate lengths (0.7 µm) and Al0.3Ga0.7As buffer layers were fabricated. The saturation, and particularly the pinch-off characteristics, showed a considerable dependence on the growth conditions used during preparation by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The structures grown at high substrate temperatures exhibited an excellent pinch-off characteristic, while those grown at low temperatures showed an inferior pinch-off characteristic. A transconductance of 160 mS/mm was obtained in all structures, regardless of the growth temperature.