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Formation of two-dimensional electron gas at AlGaN/GaN heterostructure

and the derivation of its sheet density expression

Article in Chinese Physics B · April 2015

DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/24/6/067301

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 Chin. Phys. B Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) 067301

Formation of two-dimensional electron gas at AlGaN/GaN

heterostructure and the derivation of its sheet density expression∗
He Xiao-Guang(何晓光), Zhao De-Gang(赵德刚)† , and Jiang De-Sheng(江德生)
State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China

(Received 5 November 2014; revised manuscript received 6 December 2014; published online 10 April 2015)

Models for calculating the sheet densities of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) induced by spontaneous and
piezoelectric polarization in AlGaN/GaN, AlGaN/AlN/GaN, and GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures are provided. The
detailed derivation process of the expression of 2DEG sheet density is given. A longstanding confusion in a very widely
cited formula is pointed out and its correct expression is analyzed in detail.

Keywords: high electron mobility transistors, GaN, two-dimensional electron gas, polarization effect
PACS: 73.40.–c DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/24/6/067301

1. Introduction sion. Usually the term of polarization sheet charge density σ

is regarded as a parameter to be determined, which means that
High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on Al-
the value of σ should be calculated by fitting to experiment
GaN/GaN heterostructures have been widely studied and have
results, rather than defined before fitting. So the different un-
exhibited outstanding performances in high-power and high-
derstanding of the meaning of σ will not affect the simulation
frequency devices. [1] Unlike conventional HEMTs made of
results. However, a misconception or confusion of the expres-
modulation-doped semiconductor heterostructures, no inten-
sion may hamper the further understanding of the properties
tional doping is required to generate two-dimensional electron
of AlGaN/GaN structure.
gas (2DEG) at the AlGaN/GaN interface. [2] The main problem
In this work, we carefully analyze the process of 2DEG
that hinders the further development of AlGaN/GaN HEMT is
formation and provide a possible physical picture of the Al-
a lack of understanding the origin of 2DEG. There is no doubt
GaN/GaN heterostructure. Also, a derivation of the 2DEG
that the large interface charge density in this system is corre-
density expression is given in detail to prove the its validity
lated to the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization and the
that it is the right expression.
resulting high electric field in the AlGaN barrier layer, [3] but
the source of the large quantity of electrons is controversial.
Among several different theoretical models to explain this is- 2. Modelling
sue, the most widely accepted one is that the 2DEG originates 2.1. Formation of the 2DEG in AlGaN/GaN heterostruc-
from the donor states on the AlGaN surface. [4] However, some ture
details of the process of the formation of 2DEG are still some- In many studies concerning 2DEG, the existence of
what unclear. 2DEG is regarded as an a priori assumption. [3,6,7] There is
Also, an accurate expression of the sheet carrier concen- no doubt about the existence of 2DEG in AlGaN/GaN het-
tration of 2DEG ns is critical to the further development of erostructure, but being aware of the existence of 2DEG is not
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. There is an important and very widely helpful for understanding the mechanism of its formation. By
cited equation reported for calculating the 2DEG concentra- splitting the whole heterostructure into two independent parts,
tion ns [5] (see Eq. (4) in this article, which will be discussed analyzing separately and finally assembling together, we can
later in more detail). However, according to our investigation, see clearer physical pictures of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure
there is a serious confusion in the expression of this equation, and the process of the formation of 2DEG. All structures dis-
especially about the term of polarization sheet charge den- cussed in this work are pseudomorphic heterostructures with
sity σ . In this widely cited equation, 2DEG is considered to Ga-face polarity.
be caused by the net polarization charge of AlGaN and GaN The polarization effect of an AlGaN layer grown on a
(i.e., σpol = σAlGaN − σGaN ). However, according to our re- GaN buffer induces positive polarization charge at the Al-
search, 2DEG is induced by the polarization of the AlGaN GaN/GaN interface and negative polarization charge at the top
layer, and the term σ GaN should not be added into the expres- of the AlGaN layer. Thus an electric field is formed within
∗ Projectsupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61377020, 61376089, 61223005, and 61176126) and the National Science
Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China (Grant No. 60925017).
† Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

© 2015 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd http://iopscience.iop.org/cpb http://cpb.iphy.ac.cn

067301-1
 Chin. Phys. B Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) 067301
the AlGaN layer. It is reasonable to regard the AlGaN surface heterostructure, few conductive electrons will move under the
and the AlGaN/GaN interface as two infinite charged planes, force of the electric field and the energy band will almost re-
as the thickness of the whole epilayer is just several µm, which main unchanged because of the lack of conductive electrons.
is very small in comparison to the lateral size of the substrate. When electrons contact the GaN, Fermi levels on the sides are
The formation of 2DEG of an AlGaN/GaN heterostruc- close to each other and even the Fermi level of GaN may be
ture with an n-doped AlGaN layer is easy to understand. In higher, so very few or even no electrons will flow into the GaN
the AlGaN layer, the positive polarization charge at the Al- side and no 2DEG will form. However, this does not accord
GaN/GaN interface and the negative polarization charge at the with the fact that no intentional doping is required to generate
top of the AlGaN layer induce an electric field and make the 2DEG at the AlGaN/GaN interface.
energy band (along with the Fermi level) tilt toward the inter-
face. This situation is equal to applying a voltage to a piece Ec

of thin freestanding AlGaN film, in other words, a planar plate Ef

capacitor with AlGaN dielectric medium as shown in Fig. 1.
Under the force of the electric field, conducting electrons (note Ev

that the AlGaN layer is n-doped) in AlGaN move to the pos-

Fig. 3. (color online) Energy band of undoped freestanding AlGaN on
itive electrode and accumulate there, leaving positive space
the assumption that the AlGaN layer is under the same tensile strain as
charges in AlGaN, bending the energy band and making the that when growing on GaN. The polarization-induced electric field will
Fermi level flat again. Also, the built-in electric field will not cause curvature of the energy band because of the lack of conductive
electrons.
reduce the whole electric field in the AlGaN layer and thus
make the inclined energy band flatter. Once contacting GaN, Then where does the 2DEG come from? First, the 2DEG
electrons on the AlGaN side will flow into the GaN and form cannot come from the GaN buffer. The total polarization
2DEG, because the Fermi level of GaN is lower than that of charge at the AlGaN/GaN interface can be divided into two
AlGaN as shown in the left part of Fig. 2. This process will parts. One part comes from AlGaN, and the other comes from
continue until the Fermi levels of AlGaN and GaN become GaN. The AlGaN part will have no effect on the GaN side be-
equal to each other (the right part of Fig. 2). cause the negative polarization charge at the top of the AlGaN
layer and the positive polarization charge at the interface forms
Ec a planar plate capacitor, which generates no electric field out-
Ef
side its two planes. Similarly, the GaN part, together with its
counterpart at the bottom of the GaN layer, generates a uni-
Ev form electric field pointing from the bottom of the GaN layer
toward the AlGaN/GaN interface. This electric field will re-
duce the net electron density at the AlGaN/GaN interface, let
Fig. 1. (color online) Energy band of n-doped freestanding AlGaN alone form 2DEG. Second, the 2DEG cannot come from the
film (assuming the AlGaN layer to be under the same tensile strain body of the AlGaN barrier because there are few conductive
as that when growing on GaN). Conductive electrons move under the
polarization-induced electric field from one side to the other, thereby electrons in undoped AlGaN as mentioned before.
bending the energy band, and leaving fixed positive charges in the Al- The formation of the 2DEG at the AlGaN/GaN interface
GaN layer.
can be well explained by assuming the existence of donor
states on the AlGaN surface. [4] Figure 4 shows the energy
Ec band of a piece of freestanding AlGaN with surface donor
2DEG
Ef states on the assumption that the AlGaN layer is under the
same tensile strain as grown on GaN. If the AlGaN layer is
thick enough, the Fermi level will reach the donor state level
Ev
Es , and the electrons will be stimulated into the conductive
band and swiped toward the other side by the force of the
AlGaN GaN AlGaN GaN polarization-induced electric field. Once contacting with a
GaN layer, electrons will flow into the GaN side because of
Fig. 2. (color online) Energy band of an n-doped AlGaN/GaN heterostruc- the drop of the Fermi level. The electrons will accumulate at
ture. When contacting a GaN layer, electrons will flow into the GaN side,
accumulate at the interface and form 2DEG.
the interface and form 2DEG as shown in Fig. 5. The 2DEG
and the ionized surface donor states will generate an electric
However, as for the case of undoped AlGaN, the situation field pointing from the interface to the surface and reduce the
is different. As shown in Fig. 3, in an undoped AlGaN/GaN polarization field in the AlGaN layer.
067301-2
 Chin. Phys. B Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) 067301
Ec where ∆VAlGaN is the potential drop across the conductive
band of the AlGaN surface and the AlGaN/GaN interface (see
Ef
Es
Fig. 7), d is the thickness of the AlGaN layer, σ AlGaN is the
Es sheet charge density that is induced by AlGaN polarization, ns
Ev is the sheet density of 2DEG, q is the electron charge, and ε is
the dielectric constant of AlGaN. The potential drop ∆VAlGaN
can be expressed as

q∆VAlGaN = qφb + Ef − ∆Ec , (2)

where φ b is the surface barrier height, Ef is the Fermi level

Es Es position with respect to the GaN conduction-band edge at the
AlGaN/GaN interface, and ∆Ec is the conduction band discon-
tinuity between GaN and AlGaN as shown in Fig. 7. There-
fore, based on Eqs. (1) and (2), the sheet density of 2DEG can
Fig. 4. (color online) Energy band of undoped freestanding AlGaN (tak- be expressed as
ing surface donor states into account). Electrons are stimulated into the
conductive band and move under the force of the polarization-induced σAlGaN ε
ns = − 2 (qφb + Ef − ∆Ec ). (3)
electric field. q q d

Ec This equation is different from the one that has been

widely cited [5]
Ef σpol ε
ns = − 2 (qφb + Ef − ∆Ec ), (4)
Es q q d
Es
Ev
where σ pol , the net polarization-induced charge density at the
surface, is given by σpol = σAlGaN − σGaN . However, as dis-
AlGaN GaN AlGaN GaN cussed before, σ GaN , the polarization charge induced by GaN
Fig. 5. (color online) Energy band of an undoped AlGaN/GaN heterostruc- has no effect on the potential drop of the AlGaN layer, and
ture. When contacting a GaN layer, electrons will flow into the GaN side,
accumulate at the interface and form 2DEG. σ AlGaN is the contributor to the formation of 2DEG. Accord-
ing to our investigation, there was confusion in expressing the
2.2. Equations
polarized sheet charge density σ pol in this equation, which was
2.2.1. The 2DEG density of AlGaN/GaN heterostruc-
presented in a review article [5] and later widely cited by other
ture
research groups. [4,6–8] Actually, the expression in Ref. [5] was
Based on the above discussion, a profile of the charge also cited from another paper, [9] which provides a 2DEG ex-
distribution of an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is depicted in
pression of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure for the first time,
Fig. 6. There are three dipoles. First, ±σAlGaN , the Al-
to the best of our knowledge. In this article the authors did not
GaN polarization-induced charge; second, ±σGaN , the GaN
take σ GaN into account and gave out an expression that was
polarization-induced charge; third, the 2DEG and the ionized
just the same as Eq. (3). For some unknown reason, in later
surface charge σ S . These three dipoles are equivalent to three
citations, [4–8] σ AlGaN was replaced by σ pol (equals σ AlGaN –
planar plate capacitors C1 , C2 , and C3 respectively. Each of
σ GaN ) in the ns expression. It is also not known why in an-
these capacitors only has a nonzero electric field between its
other article [10] written by the authors of the same research
two parallel planes and has no effect on electrons outside its
group as that in Ref. [9], the first term of the expression of the
inner body. The internal electric field intensity of a planar plate
net polarization sheet charge density at the interface was also
capacitor is given by E = σ /ε, where σ is the quantity of elec-
changed into the same one that was presented in Ref. [5], i.e.,
tric charges on opposite planes, ε is the dielectric constant of
σ pol , rather than σ AlGaN , was used in the ns expression. Un-
the dielectric medium of the capacitor. In the area where two
or more pairs of charged planes overlap, the net electric field fortunately, there was no detailed derivation of this equation in
is the algebraic sum. Thus, the electric field intensity in the these articles, so we actually do not know the real derivation
AlGaN layer is determined by the charges of C1 and C2 , i.e., process about how the authors obtained it. However, based on
the AlGaN polarization-induced charge and the 2DEG: our analysis and discussion, we believe that the correct form
of the expression should be the one as described by Eq. (3),
∆VAlGaN σAlGaN qns
= − , (1) i.e., the first term should be σ AlGaN , instead of σ pol .
d ε ε
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 Chin. Phys. B Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) 067301
σ +σAlGaN ∆VAlN σAlN qns
+σs = − . (6)
+σGaN
dAlN εAlN εAlN
As shown in Fig. 9, the potential drop of the AlGaN layer
x across the surface and the AlGaN/AlN interface can be ex-
−σGaN pressed as
−nsSq
−σAlGaN
q∆VAlGaN = qφb + Ef − ∆Ec,eff , (7)
2DEG
where the effective conductive band gap ∆Ec,eff can be given
as
surface AlGaN GaN substrate
∆Ec,eff = q∆VAlN + ∆Ec,AlN/GaN − ∆Vc,AlGaN/AlN , (8)
EAlGaN EGaN where ∆Ec,a/b is the conductive band gap between material a
E2DEG and b.

σ +σAlGaN +σAlN
Fig. 6. (color online) Charge distribution profile of an AlGaN/GaN het- +σs
erostructure. +σGaN

x
−σGaN
−σAlGaN −σ −nsSq
AlN
qDVAlGaN
2DEG
qφb
AlGaN
DEc surface AlGaN AlN GaN substrate

EAlGaN EAlN EGaN

Ef GaN
E2DEG

Fig. 8. (color online) Charge distribution profile of an AlGaN/AlN/GaN

heterostructure.
Fig. 7. (color online) Conductive band diagram of an AlGaN/ GaN het-
erostructure.

2.2.2. The 2DEG density of AlGaN/AlN/GaN and

GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure qDVAlN
DEc,AlGaN/AlN
Now an AlN interfacial layer [11] or a GaN cap layer [12]
is often to added into the AlGaN/GaN HEMT structure to AIN
qDVAlGaN
achieve a better performance. The expression of 2DEG sheet
DEc,AlN/GaN
density ns of these two structures is easy to obtain based on qφb
AlGaN
the above discussion.
The profile of the charge distribution of an Al- DEc,eff
GaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure is shown in Fig. 8. The charges
at the surface and interfaces can be regarded as four pairs of in- Ef GaN

finite charged planes with an equal quantity of heterogeneous

charges. Each pair of planes only have a nonzero electric field
within its two charged planes (E = σ /ε) and have no effect Fig. 9. (color online) Conductive band diagram of an AlGaN/AlN/GaN
heterostructure.
on the outside region. In the area where two or more pairs of
charged planes overlap, the electric field is the algebraic sum. From Eqs. (5)–(8), we can obtain the expression of the
Thus we can obtain the expression of the potential energy drop sheet density of 2DEG of AlGaN/AlN/GaN as
of the AlGaN layer and the AlN interfacial layer in a similar 1

way ns = dAlGaN σAlGaN + dAlN σAlN
q(dAlGaN + dAlN )

∆VAlGaN σAlGaN qns ε
= − , (5) − (qφb + Ef − ∆Ec,AlN/GaN + ∆Ec,AlGaN/AlN ) , (9)
dAlGaN εAlGaN εAlGaN q
067301-4
 Chin. Phys. B Vol. 24, No. 6 (2015) 067301
 
where ε is the dielectric constant of GaN, AlN, and AlGaN ε
× dGaN σGaN + dAlGaN σAlGaN − (qφb + Ef ) . (10)
on the assumption that their dielectric constants are equal to q
each other, dAlGaN and dAlN are the thickness values of the The charge distribution and the energy band figure are shown
AlGaN and AlN layer respectively, σ AlGaN and σ AlN are the in Figs. 10 and 11.
polarization (including spontaneous and piezoelectric) charges
induced by AlGaN and AlN layers, respectively.
3. Summary and conclusions
σ +σAlGaN In summary, according to the surface state model, we an-
+σs
+σGaN +σGaN alyzed the formation of 2DEG in an AlGaN/GaN heterostruc-
ture. A detailed derivation of the expression of 2DEG sheet
density of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure is provided. A
−σGaN −σGaN longstanding confusion about the expression of ns is analyzed
−nsSq
−σAlGaN in detail. It is proven that the polarization charge in the 2DEG
2DEG
formula should be σ AlGaN , the spontaneous and piezoelectric
polarization-induced sheet charge of AlGaN, i.e., the net po-
surface GaN AlGaN GaN substrate
larization charge at the AlGaN surface (σ AlGaN –σ GaN ), in-
stead of σ pol . The exact expressions of ns of AlGaN/AlN/GaN
and GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures are also derived in a
EGaN EAlN EGaN
corresponding way.
E2DEG

Fig. 10. (color online) Charge distribution profile of a GaN/AlGaN/GaN

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q(dGaN + dAlGaN )

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