Hot-electron drift velocity and hot-phonon decay in AlInN/AlN/GaN

A nanosecond‐pulsed current–voltage technique was applied to study hot‐electron transport along the two‐dimensional electron gas channel confined at a nominally undoped AlInN/AlN/GaN heterointerface. Hot‐electron drift velocity was deduced under the assumptions of uniform longitudinal electric field and field‐independent electron sheet density. At a fixed electric field strength, a resonance‐type non‐monotonous dependence of the velocity on the electron density was found in the investigated range from 1 to When the electric field increased from 20 kV/cm to 80 kV/cm, the peak velocity increased from ∼1.1 to cm/s, and the position of the resonance shifted from ∼1.1 to ∼1.2 respectively. The resonance position correlates with that for the fastest decay of hot phonons known from independent experiment. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) The frequency of operation of heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs) is primarily determined by electron transport in a two‐dimensional electron gas (2DEG) subjected to a high electric field. This Letter reports on the first demonstration of the electric‐field‐tuned drift‐velocity resonance for gateless AlInN/AlN/GaN 2DEG channels deduced from experimental study of hot‐electron transport. The resonance position correlates with that for the fastest decay of hot phonons determined from independent experiments.