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  1. Abstract Gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) host high-density two-dimensional electron and hole gases in undoped GaN quantum wells, created by built-in polarization fields and favorable band offsets. These interfacial states are essential for many high-power and high-frequency devices, yet momentum-resolved measurements (particularly under applied bias) remain rare due to two challenges: (i) the surface sensitivity of conventional vacuum-ultraviolet ARPES, which cannot probe deeply buried states, and (ii) the difficulty of implementing electrostatic gating in semiconductor heterostructures due to leakage currents. Here, we use soft X-ray ARPES to overcome the first challenge, directly accessing quantized states several nanometers below the surface in GaN/AlN heterostructures and relating their subband dispersions to transport characteristics. As a precursor to gated ARPES, we employ controlled oxygen adsorption to chemically tune the potential and track the resulting band shifts. This approach opens a pathway toward fully gate-tunable, momentum-resolved studies of buried states in wide-bandgap devices. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 31, 2027
  2. β -Ga2O3 is actively touted as the next ultrawide bandgap material for power electronics. To fully utilize its high intrinsic critical electric field, development of high-quality robust large-barrier height junctions is essential. To this end, various high-work function metals, metal oxides, and hole-conducting oxides have been deposited on Ga2O3, primarily formed by sputter deposition. Unfortunately, reports to date indicate that measured barrier heights often deviate from the Schottky–Mott model as well as x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) extractions of conduction band offsets, suggesting significant densities of electrically active defects at these junctions. We report Schottky diodes made from noble metal oxides, IrO2 and RuO2, deposited by ozone molecular beam epitaxy (ozone MBE) with barrier heights near 1.8 eV. These barriers show close agreement across extraction methods and robust to high surface electric fields upward of 6 MV/cm and 60 A/cm2 reverse current without degradation. 
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  3. Using low-temperature cathodoluminescence spectroscopy, we study the properties of N- and Al-polar AlN layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on bulk AlN{0001}. Compared with the bulk AlN substrate, layers of both polarities feature a suppression of deep-level luminescence, a total absence of the prevalent donor with an exciton binding energy of 28 meV, and a much increased intensity of the emission from free excitons. The dominant donor in these layers is characterized by an associated exciton binding energy of 13 meV. The observation of excited exciton states up to the exciton continuum allows us to directly extract the Γ5 free exciton binding energy of 57 meV. 
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  4. Abstract We report the growth of α -Ga 2 O 3 on m -plane α -Al 2 O 3 by conventional plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy and In-mediated metal–oxide-catalyzed epitaxy (MOCATAXY). We report a growth rate diagram for α -Ga 2 O 3 ( 10 1 ¯ 0 ), and observe (i) a growth rate increase, (ii) an expanded growth window, and (iii) reduced out-of-lane mosaic spread when MOCATAXY is employed for the growth of α -Ga 2 O 3 . Through the use of In-mediated catalysis, growth rates over 0.2 μ m h −1 and rocking curves with full width at half maxima of Δ ω ≈ 0.45° are achieved. Faceting is observed along the α -Ga 2 O 3 film surface and explored through scanning transmission electron microscopy. 
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