Determination of surface barrier height and surface state density in GaN films grown on sapphire substrates

Abstract

ABSTRACTPhotoreflectance (PR) modulation spectroscopy was performed to investigate surface properties of GaN films grown on sapphire substrates. From the period of the Franz-Keldysh oscillations, the surface electric field across the GaN space charge region was found to be (197 ± 11) kV/cm, which corresponds to a surface state density of 1.0×1012 cm−2. A surface barrier height of 0.71 eV was determined by fitting the dependence of the PR intensities on pump beam power density. We suggest that a deep level is formed at 2.68 eV above the GaN valence band edge due to the large density of surface states.