Intrinsic modulation doping in InP-based structures: properties relevant to device applications

In this work we study device-relevant issues, such as doping efficiency and thermal stability, of recently proposed intrinsic modulation doping approach where intrinsic defects (P In antisites) are used as a carrier source instead of impurity dopants. The InP/InGaAs heterostructure designed to resemble high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures, where all the layers were grown at a normal growth temperature 480°C except for the top InP layer which was grown at 265°C, was used as a prototype device. A comparison between the intrinsically doped structure with extrinsically doped HEMTs, which have an identical design except that the top InP layer was instead Si-doped and was grown at 480°C, reveals a high efficiency of the intrinsic doping. The thermal stability of the intrinsically doped HEMT is examined by annealing at temperatures 400–500°C relevant to possible processing steps needed in device fabrication. The observed severe reduction of the carrier concentration after annealing performed without phosphorous gas protection is attributed to the known instability of an InP surface at T>400°C. Thermal stability of the intrinsically doped HEMT is shown to be improved by using an InP cap layer grown at 480°C.