Deep-Level Dominated Current-Voltage Characteristics of Novel Semiconductor Heterostructures

Abstract

AbstractCurrent-voltage characteristics of Au contacts formed on buried implanted oxide silicon-on-insulator structures and molecular beam epitaxially grown GaAs on (1012) sapphire and silicon-on-sapphire substrates indicate that the dominant transport mechanism in these films is space-charge-limited current conduction in the presence of deep-level states. The deep-level parameters, determined using an analysis of the current-voltage characteristics, appear to be sensitive to the nature of crystallographic defects present in the grown layers. Conduction in the GaAs film on SOS was dominated by one discrete state located ~ 0.28eV below the conduction band-edge, which is close to the El center uniquely observed in the molecular beam epitaxially grown GaAs-on-Si. Discrete levels are also observed in annealed buried implanted oxide silicon-on-insulator films. In contrast, the GaAs films deposited directly on (1012) sapphire substrates and rapid-thermally annealed high-dose As implanted buried oxide SOI films appear to have a continuous distribution of states. The distributed states in GaAs films deposited directly on sapphire probably arise from the electrical activity of the double-position boundaries present in this material system.