Publications Details

Bulk GaN and AIGaN/GaN heterostructure drift velocity measurements and comparison to theoretical models

Koleske, Daniel; Shul, Randy J.

The room-temperature velocity-field characteristics for n-type gallium nitride and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, grown epitaxially on sapphire, were determined experimentally. A pulsed voltage input and four-point measurements were used on special geometry samples to determine the electron drift velocity as a function of applied electric field in the basal plane. These measurements show apparent saturation velocities near 2.5 x 10{sup 7} cm/s at 180 kV/cm for the n-type gallium nitride and 3.1 x 10{sup 7} cm/s at 140 kV/cm for the AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. A comparison of these studies shows that the experimental velocities are close to previously published simulations based upon Monte Carlo techniques.