Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2006
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Applied Physics Letters
Volume
88
Issue
12
DOI of Original Publication
10.1063/1.2188589
Date of Submission
April 2015
Abstract
We report the value of surface band bending for undoped, a-plane GaN layers grown on r-plane sapphire by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The surface potential was measured directly by ambient scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. The upward surface band bending of GaN films grown in the [112¯0] direction was found to be 1.1±0.1V. Because polarization effects are not present on a-plane GaN, we attribute such band bending to the presence of charged surface states. We have modeled the surface band bending assuming a localized level of surface states in the band gap on the surface. It should be noted that the band bending observed for a-plane layers is comparable to that obtained on polar c-plane layers, and both a-plane and c-plane GaN films with similar surface treatments demonstrate comparable band bending behavior, indicating that charged surface states dominate band banding in both cases.
Rights
Chevtchenko, S., Ni, X., Fan, Q., et al. Surface band bending of a-plane GaN studied by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. Applied Physics Letters, 88, 122104 (2006). Copyright © 2006 AIP Publishing LLC.
Is Part Of
VCU Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications
Comments
Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2188589