III-Nitride Semiconductor Materials
Written by renowned experts, this valuable resource covers the most important topics and achievements in recent years, discusses progress made by different groups, and suggests future directions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS III-Nitride Semiconductor Materials
Chapter 12: New Developments in Dilute Nitride Semiconductor Research
W. Shan [1] , W. Walukiewicz [1] , K.M. Yu [1] , J. Wu [2] , J.W. Ager III [1] , and E.E. Haller [1] , [3]
Abstract
Dilute nitrides are considered as highly mismatched semiconductor alloys of great technological importance for their applications in telecommunication devices and photovoltaic solar cells. This chapter reviews recent developments in the dilute nitride semiconductors research with the emphasis on the understanding of N-induced change in the electronic structure of the materials. The unusual physical properties associated with the dilute nitrides can be readily explained by the change in the conduction-band structure originating from a band anticrossing interaction between the extended conduction-band states and the localized states of nitrogen.
[1] Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
[2] Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
[3] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
1. Introduction
Dilute nitrides, especially GaAs 1- xN x and Ga 1- xIn yAs 1- xN x, have recently attracted considerable attention from both scientific and technological perspectives. The advances in thin-film deposition technology have allowed these materials to be grown with ever-improving crystalline quality, which in turn improves their optical properties and electronic performance. This enables the fundamental study of the unusual properties of these materials. These include a reduction of the fundamental band-gap energy,1 , 2 a significant increase in electron effective mass and a decrease in electron mobility. 3 5
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