Analysis of hot carrier transport in AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs by means of electroluminescence

Abstract

The carrier transport phenomena occurring in pseudomorphic AlGaAs/InGaAs HEMTs biased in the on-state impact-ionization regime is analyzed in this paper. We confirm the presence, in the electroluminescence spectra of pseudomorphic HEMTs, of a dominant contribution due to electron-hole recombination and we identify a composite peak due to recombination of cold carriers. We analyze the recombination peak using a high-resolution monochromator, which reveals the fine structure due to transitions between electron and hole subbands in the channel quantum well, thus providing useful data concerning the properties of the InGaAs HEMT channel. We also demonstrate that recombination between nonenergetic electrons and holes occurs in the gate-source region, as already observed in InAlAs/InGaAs HEMT's on InP. This recombination emission is superimposed to a less intense contribution mostly coming from the gate drain region. This contribution has a nearly Maxwellian distribution which extends to fairly high energies (>3 eV) and has equivalent temperatures in the 1000-3000 K range. Finally we show evidence of recombination in the AlGaAs layers (observed at high electric field), which demonstrates, in these devices, real space transfer of both electrons and holes.