Hydrogenic model for impurities

Ionization of acceptor or donor impurities can be considered in the

same fashion as the electron energy levels and radii are calculated
for an isolated hydrogen atom.
q 4 Z 2 m
The impurity levels Ein are given by: Ec  Ein 
2n 4 
2 2

where n is a positive integer and Z is the number of unit charge of

the ionized donor atom, i.e. Z = 2, for a doubly ionized donor.
2
In terms of hydrogen  Z   m 
Edn  Ec  Edn  13.6   
 m
 n r
atom ionization energies :
  
 n 2 r  m 
The orbital radii of the rdn  0.53    Å
 m 
electrons are given by:
 Z 
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Doping of semiconductors I
For a semiconductor in   Eg 
np  ni2  N c N v exp  
thermal equilibrium,  kT 
For flatband (charge neutral)  r 
.E   N d  N a  p  n  0
condition,  0

N a 1

  kT 
For flatband (charge neutral)
condition, N a 1  g a exp Ea  E f

N d 1
For flatband (charge neutral) 
condition, 
N d 1  g d exp E f  Ed kT  
Here ga and gd are the acceptor and donor degeneracy factors. For
GaAs: gd = 2, ga = 4 (heavy and light hole bands); For Si (six minima):
gd = 12, ga = 4; For GaN: gd = 2, ga = 2
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Doping of semiconductors II
From the charge neutrality  r 
.E   N d  N a  p  n  0
condition:  0

We have,
Nd Na

  
1  g d exp E f  Ed kT 1  g a exp Ea  E f  kT 
 E f  Ec   Ev  E f 
 N c exp    N v exp  
 kT   kT 
The above equation is the generic equation governing the position of
the Fermi level in a semiconductor at equilibrium. If the donor and
acceptor concentrations and their activation energies are known then
the position of the Fermi level can be calculated. Note that if (Ef –
Ed) and (Ea – Ef ) are >> 0, then impurities are fully ionized
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 p and n type doping of GaN
• N-type doping for GaN is simple and
similar to other common semiconductors
– Si has Ea ~ 20 meV (mobility ~800 – 1000
cm2V-1s-1), Ge not so good for doping due to
low incorporation Variation of resistivity
with annealing
• P-type doping is complicated and quite temperature
different from other semiconductors
– Mg has activation energy of ~0.2 eV
(mobility few tens of cm2V-1s-1)
– Mg forms complexes with hydrogen which
has to be broken first, for Mg to act as
acceptors
– Mg-H complexes can be broken down by
• Annealing in nitrogen atmosphere
• Low energy electron beam irradiation (LEEBI);
~10KeV, 60 A ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Technological impact of doping problems
• Fabrication of HBTs very difficult (poor base resistance)
• Contact resistance very high for LEDs and lasers (high
series resistance, bad diode characteristics)
• Other device structures involving p-type doping are not
easy to fabricate
• N-type doping of AlGaN with high Al composition is
also difficult (activation energy increases with bandgap)
• P-type doping for higher Al composition is even more
difficult
• InN samples are usually degenerately n-type doped. It is
difficult to even make a mild p-type device
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Polarization doping (special for III-nitrides)
Ga-face
Al
composition AlxGa1-xN
x increases

    P
3D

To maintain space charge

netrality, ns =3D

• Interesting from theoretical standpoint to study such 3D

charges which have mobility limited by only alloy
scattering
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Nitride thin film characterization
• Hall measurement
– Mobility
– Sheet carrier density
• Capacitance-voltage measurements (CV)
– Carrier conc. vs. distance
– Trap densities
• Photoluminescence (PL)
– Bandgap
– Purity of material and uniformity
• X-ray diffraction (XRD)
– Lattice constant and composition
– Structure and defects
• Atomic force (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
– Surface and interface studies
• Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS)
– Deep trap levels
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Lorentz force and Hall effect
F  qv  B
Jx
q B
nq
nq e E x
q B
nq L

VH
 qE y  q
w
VH LVH VH  sheet 1
e    nsheet  
wE x B wRx IB BI  sheet q q sheet 
 can be calculated from the knowledge of B and VH. Nsheet can
be calculated from  if sheet is known ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Measurement of Hall voltage and resistivity
Measurement of Resistivity Measurement of Hall voltage

 V43 V14  RA
 sheet     F (Q) where Q 
2 ln 2  I12 I 23  RB

F(Q) = 1, if RA = RB
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Summary of the Hall measurement
• For Hall measurements the magnitude of the
magnetic field should be small
• Measurement of both mobility and sheet charge
density is possible
• The volume density of carriers is possible if the
thickness of the sample is known
• The sign of the charge carriers can be found from
the sign of the Hall voltage
• Advantageous for samples having 2DEG since
direct measurement of sheet charge density can
be made unlike CV technique
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Sources of inaccuracies
• The Hall factor r =  m2 m
2
which Special geometry
depends on the scattering mechanisms to reduce the effect
• The contacts should be ohmic of the contact size
• The contact sizes should be as small as
possible w.r.t. the distance between
them (see Van der Pauw paper)
• A special cloverleaf geometry is used
for accurate measurements which is
relatively unaffected by the size of the
contacts
• Multiple conduction paths, if present,
will lead to errors in mobility estimates
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Capacitance-Voltage measurements for
MOS junctions
Vg < 0
• The ac voltage magnitude should be much Depletion
lower than the dc voltage magnitude
• Typically the ac voltage is ~15 mV rms qVg
• The MOS junction differs from the schottky
junction by its ability to create inversion
• The total capacitance is given by the series
combination of the oxide capacitance C0 and
the depletion capacitance CS
• For MOS capacitance (Si based devices), it is Ldep
important for measuring trapped charges and
oxide thickness, apart from carrier density C0 CS
estimation

ELECT 871 03/03/04

 High and low frequency CV curves
N-type doped Si MOS
C0 Accum.
Low frequency
C0 C/C0
KW Depl.
1 0
C
K S x0

C0 Inv. (   0 )
C0 High frequency
KW Inv. (    )
1 0 T
K S x0

0
VG (volts)
Minority carrier concentration cannot respond to
high frequency signal since they are generated by
thermal excitation
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 CV measurements with schottky contacts
Large area acting as
Contacts for CV ohmic contact
measurement set up Small area
(Mercury probe) schottky contact

• Large contact is grounded and -qVg

voltage applied to the small
contact
• +ve bias applied for p-type
doping and –ve bias applied for
n-type doping
• Larger area contact have smaller
Ldep
resistance and less voltage drop
ELECT 871 03/03/04
 Obtaining CV data for practical samples
CV of AlGaN/GaN sample
C3
N d xd   
dC
qK s  0 A2
dV
The doping concentration (cm-3)
can be obtained from the
magnitude of the capacitance and
the slope of the C-V curve

The exact profile of the carrier

concentration is not possible to
obtain due to carrier spreading

ELECT 871 03/03/04

 Problems and limitations of CV (Hg probe)
• Problems with low doping: increased series
resistance and significant voltage drop across
resistance
• Problems with high doping: Lower probing depth
limited by tunneling and possible breakdown of
the semiconductor material
• Profile obtained does not give the dopant density
in presence of a doping gradient due to carrier
diffusion
• In presence of deep traps the CV profile measures
the net carrier concentration
ELECT 871 03/03/04