Si and Mg pair-doped interlayers for improving performance of AIGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors grown on Si substrate

We report a novel structure of A1GaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors （HFETs） with a Si and Mg pair- doped interlayer grown on Si substrate. By optimizing the doping concentrations of the pair-doped interlayers, the mobility of 2DEG increases by twice for the conventional structure under 5 K due to the improved crystalline quality of the conduction channel. The proposed HFET shows a four orders lower off-state leakage current, resulting in a much higher on/off ratio （ - 10^9）. Further temperature-dependent performance of Schottky diodes revealed that the inhibition of shallow surface traps in proposed HFETs should be the main reason for the suppression of leakage current.