Thermally stimulated current spectroscopy on silicon planar-doped GaAs samples

Abstract

Using thermally stimulated current (TSC) spectroscopy we have identified the presence of several deep traps in low temperature grown (LTG) nonintentionally doped bulk molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-GaAs and silicon planar-doped MBE-GaAs samples. The experiments of TSC spectroscopy were carried out on a LTG MBE-GaAs epilayer grown at 300 °C and the planar-doped layer with a nominal silicon concentration of 3.4×1012 cm−2. The LTG nonintentionally doped bulk MBE-GaAs sample shows three peaks in the TSC spectra but the planar-doped MBE-GaAs sample shows spectra similar to those of bulk samples grown by the liquid-encapsulated Czochralski and vertical gradient freeze methods. The main achievement is the experimental evidence that the potential well present in the planar-doped sample is effective in detecting the presence of different deep traps previously not seen in LTG bulk MBE-GaAs epilayers due to a shorter carrier lifetime (about 10−12 s) in the conduction band which occurs due to EL2-like deep traps recombination. This fact is evidenced by a strong hopping conduction in LTG bulk MBE-GaAs samples at temperatures lower than 300 K, but not in planar-doped MBE-GaAs samples because the two-dimensional electron gas has a higher mobility than lateral LTG bulk MBE-GaAs epilayers.