The doctoral dissertations of the former Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and Aalto University Schools of Technology (CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI) published in electronic format are available in the electronic publications archive of Aalto University - Aaltodoc.
Aalto

Electrical Characterization of Nitrogen Containing III-V Semiconductors

Victor Tapio Rangel Kuoppa

Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission of the Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering for public examination and debate in Auditorium S4 at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) on the 9th of March, 2007, at 12 noon.

Overview in PDF format (ISBN 978-951-22-8638-6)   [2856 KB]
Dissertation is also available in print (ISBN 978-951-22-8637-9)

Abstract

Several nitrogen containing III-V compound semiconductors, together with GaInAs and AlGaAs, were electrically characterized. The main technique used was deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), but also current voltage (I-V), capacitance voltage (C-V), isothermal transient spectroscopy (ITS) and Hall measurements were employed.

As a contribution to the DLTS technique, the use of inductors in DLTS was theoretically and experimentally researched. A new technique to get the real Schottky series capacitance and resistance is proposed. Its application to AlGaAs is shown.

Si-doped GaInAs and GaInNAs with small In and N content, lattice matched to GaAs, grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), were studied by DLTS. Samples were studied after growth and after various thermal treatments. Several deep levels were found, and their properties (activation energy, capture cross section, density) were examined as a function of the annealing treatment. The GaInAs sample showed three deep levels, which are suspected to be related with deep levels M5, EL4 and EL10.

The GaInNAs samples with medium and heavy Si-doping were also studied. The medium Si-doped sample showed five deep levels, whose concentrations varied upon annealing temperature. The analysis suggested they are related to EL2, off-centre substitutional oxygen in As sites, clustering of GaNAs and GaInAs, intrinsic to GaAs and high disorder introduced. The heavy Si-doped sample showed one deep level, the concentration of which was reduced with increasing annealing temperature, and it is suspected to also be intrinsic to GaAs.

InN grown by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) was studied. Growth temperature strongly affects the island size, optical quality and electrical properties of the material. Several metal contacts (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu, Ni, Ge, Ti, Cr and Al) were tested and studied by I-V. Only Pt and Ge yielded some Schottky contact behavior, but were very unstable. Al contacts annealed at 550 °C for 1 min formed stable rectifying contacts.

This thesis consists of an overview and of the following 7 publications:

  1. Victor-Tapio Rangel-Kuoppa, Antti Tukiainen and James Dekker, Theoretical and practical research of the use of inductors for improving DLTS characterization of semiconductors, Microelectronics Journal 34, 751-753 (2003). © 2003 Elsevier Science. By permission.
  2. V. T. Rangel-Kuoppa and M. Pessa, Inductance deep-level transient spectroscopy for determining temperature-dependent resistance and capacitance of Schottky diodes, Review of Scientific Instruments 74, 4561-4563 (2003). © 2003 American Institute of Physics. By permission.
  3. V. T. Rangel-Kuoppa and J. Dekker, Deep levels in GaInAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy and their concentration reduction with annealing treatment, Materials Science and Engineering B 130, 5-10 (2006). © 2006 Elsevier Science. By permission.
  4. Tomi Jouhti, Chang Si Peng, Emil-Mihai Pavelescu, Wei Li, Victor-Tapio Rangel-Kuoppa, Janne Konttinen, Pekka Laukkanen and Markus Pessa, Group III-arsenide-nitride quantum well structures on GaAs for laser diodes emitting at 1.3 µm, Proceedings of SPIE 4651, 32-41 (2002). © 2002 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). By permission.
  5. V. T. Rangel-Kuoppa and J. Dekker, Deep levels in GaInNAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy and their concentration reduction with annealing treatment, Materials Science and Engineering B 129, 222-227 (2006). © 2006 Elsevier Science. By permission.
  6. S. Suihkonen, J. Sormunen, V. T. Rangel-Kuoppa, H. Koskenvaara and M. Sopanen, Growth of InN by vertical flow MOVPE, Journal of Crystal Growth 291, 8-11 (2006). © 2006 Elsevier Science. By permission.
  7. Victor-Tapio Rangel-Kuoppa, Sami Suihkonen, Markku Sopanen and Harri Lipsanen, Metal contacts on InN: proposal for Schottky contact, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 45, 36-39 (2006).

Keywords: electrical characterization, DLTS, ITS, IV, CV, Hall, III-V, GaInAs, GaInNAs, InN, deep level

This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.

© 2007 Helsinki University of Technology

Last update 2011-05-26