Hole Traps Associated With High-Concentration Residual Carriers In P-Type Gaasn Grown By Chemical Beam Epitaxy

The hole traps associated with high background doping in p-type GaAsN grown by chemical beam epitaxy are studied based on the changes of carrier concentration, junction capacitance, and hole traps properties due to the annealing. The carrier concentration was increased dramatically with annealing time, based on capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement. In addition, the temperature dependence of the junction capacitance (C-T) was increased rapidly two times. Such behavior is explained by the thermal ionization of two acceptor states. These acceptors are the main cause of high background doping in the film, since the estimated carrier concentration from C-T results explains the measured carrier concentration at room temperature using C-V method. The acceptor states became shallower after annealing, and hence their structures are thermally unstable. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) showed that the HC2 hole trap was composed of two signals, labeled HC21 and HC22. These defects correspond to the acceptor levels, as their energy levels obtained from DLTS are similar to those deduced from C-T. The capture cross sections of HC21 and HC22 are larger than those of single acceptors. In addition, their energy levels and capture cross sections change in the same way due to the annealing. This tendency suggests that HC21 and HC22 signals originate from the same defect which acts as a double acceptor. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.