Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

A deep understanding of both carrier recombination and transport is necessary for semiconductor engineering, particularly in defining the ultimate limits of performance for a given device before spending the resources to perfect its fabrication. Hall effect measurements utilizing a variable magnetic field are necessary to discriminate between conduction in epitaxial layers and conduction originating at the surface or at an interfacial layer. For thick hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) grown GaN, variable field Hall measurements revealed the presence of small but significant lower mobility surface and interface electrons which would otherwise lead to errors in interpreting the electrical properties. In addition, QMSA analysis of the measurements indicates that thick GaN samples contain a large spread in electron mobility values, most likely with depth. For molecular beam epitaxial InN, it was found that electrical measurements are affected by surface charge conduction, as well as the non-uniformity of mobility and carrier concentration with depth. Both of these effects mask the surprisingly high quality of the material close to the surface. Photoconductance lifetime and variable-magnetic-field Hall and transient measurements were performed on a series of undoped, In-doped and As-doped HgCdTe grown by MBE and MOCVD. N-type layers often significantly influence the interpretation of the electrical measurements. Even the best Low Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) n-type material still appears to be dominated by defect-related recombination, as intrinsic lifetimes calculated with full band structure can be well above those measured. Mid-Wavelength Infrared (MWIR) lifetimes increase somewhat with carrier concentration, as if the n-type doping process were passivating Schockley-Read-Hall (SRH) defects. P-type MWIR films lie mainly below the predicted values, and their relationship between concentration and lifetime is essentially unchanged by growth technique, indicating that a fundamental native defect is responsible for the recombination. Those with lifetimes above the predicted values have anomalous temperature dependences when measured, and often a non-exponential photoconductive decay characteristic of minority carrier traps. Deep level trap concentrations in GaN can harm performance in many desired applications. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurement on MBE GaN suggest that the trapping center concentration drops with temperature below 770°C.

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