Deep-level transient spectroscopy studies of electron and hole traps in n-type GaN homoepitaxial layers grown by quartz-free hydride-vapor-phase epitaxy

Abstract

We studied deep levels in quartz-free hydride-vapor-phase epitaxy (QF-HVPE)-grown homoepitaxial n-type GaN layers within which three electron and eight hole traps were detected. The dominant electron and hole traps observed in the QF-HVPE-grown GaN layers were E3 (EC - 0.60 eV) and H1 (EV + 0.87 eV), respectively. We found that the E3 trap density of QF-HVPE-grown GaN (∼1014 cm-3) was comparable with that of MOVPE-grown GaN layers, whereas the H1 trap density of QF-HVPE-grown GaN (∼1014 cm-3) was much smaller than that of an MOVPE-grown GaN layer with a low-residual-carbon growth condition. A detailed analysis of the QF-HVPE-grown GaN layers revealed that the H1 trap density is almost equal to the carbon impurity concentration and other impurities that compensate the Si donors besides the carbon impurity were hardly detected in the QF-HVPE-grown GaN layers.