Electron beam-induced current investigation of GaN schottky diode

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 34; no. 7; pp. 1059 - 1064
• Main Authors: MATOUSSI, A, BOUFADEN, T, GUERMAZI, S, MLIK, Y, EL JANI, B, TOUREILLE, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 01-07-2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Diodes; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Materials; Microelectronics; Physics; Scanning electron microscopy; Semiconductor doping; Surface double layers, schottky barriers, and work functions; generation; Polarization; Minority carrier; Transport properties; recombination; Doping; Charge carrier mobility; Hole mobility; Absorption coefficient; trapping; Layer; Gallium nitride; Transport process; GaN; Carrier lifetime; charge carriers; EBIC; electron beam-induced current (EBIC); Optical absorption; Diffusion length; Schottky barrier
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-005-0096-3
• EISSN: 1543-186X
• ISSN: 0361-5235

In this article, we report the electron beam-induced current (EBIC) measurements in a GaN Schottky diode performed in the line-scan configuration. A theoretical model with an extended generation source was used to accurately extract some minority carrier transport properties of the unintentionally doped n-GaN layer. The minority hole diffusion length is found to increase from ~0.35 µm near the junction to ~1.74 µm at the bulk regions. This change is attributed to an increase of the carrier lifetime caused by the polarization effects, which are preponderant in this component. For depth distances exceeding 0.65 µm, it is shown that the measured current is produced by the reabsorption recombination radiation process. This corresponds to an absorption coefficient of 0.178 µm^sup -1^, in good agreement with the optical absorption measurement. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]