Unusually high-density 2D electron gases in N-polar AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with GaN/AlN superlattice back barriers grown on sapphire substrates

Abstract

We reported on the observation of extremely high-density ($>10^{14}$cm$^{-2}$) 2D electron gas in N-polar AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on sapphire substrates. Due to introducing the GaN/AlN superlattice (SL) back barrier between the GaN buffer layer and AlGaN barrier layer, we observed a giant enhancement of the 2D electron gas density at the GaN/AlGaN interface from $3\times10^{13}$cm$^{-2}$ (without SL) to $1.4\times10^{14}$cm$^{-2}$ (with SL back barrier) that is only one order of magnitude below the intrinsic crystal limit of $\approx10^{15}$cm$^{-2}$. We found that the changes of 2D electron gas density with SL correlated well with the changes of the wafer warp parameter which suggests that the strains are responsible for the 2D electron gas density enhancement (reduction of the piezoelectric polarization in the GaN channel). Nevertheless, this finding is probably insufficient to fully explain the observed high 2D electron gas density. Simultaneously, the room temperature electron mobility was 169 cm$^2$/Vs, which with the electron density of $1.4\times10^{14}$cm$^{-2}$ gives a low sheet resistance of 264 $\Omega$/sq (one of the lowest reported so far for the N-polar 2D electron gas channel). Finally, the possibility of application of such high-density 2D electron gas with low sheet resistance to transistors, emitters and detectors was discussed.