Heterostructure devices: A device physicist looks at interfaces

The band offsets occurring at abrupt hetero-interfaces in heterostructure devices serve as potential steps acting on the mobile carriers, in addition to the macroscopic electrostatic forces already present in homostructure devices. Incorporation of hetero-interfaces therefore offers a powerful device design parameter to control the distribution and flow of mobile carriers, greatly improving existing kinds of devices and making new kinds of devices possible. Unusual device requirements can often be met by band lineups occurring in suitable semiconductor combinations. Excellent theoretical rules exist for the semi-quantitative (< ±0.2 eV) prediction of band offsets, even unusual ones, but no quantitatively accurate (< ±l kT) purely theoretical predictive rules are currently available. Poorly-understood second-order nuisance effects, such as small interface charges and small technology-dependent offset variations, act as major limitations in device design. Suitable measurements on device-type structures can provide accurate values for interface physics parameters, but the most widely used measurements are of limited reliability, with pure I—V measurement being of least use. Many of the problems at interfaces between two III/V semiconductors are hugely magnified at interfaces between a compound semiconductor and an elemental one. Large interface charges, and a strong technology dependence of band offsets are to be expected, but can be reduced by deliberate use of certain unconventional crystallographic orientations. An understanding of such polar/nonpolar interfaces is emerging; it is expected to lead to a better understanding and control of III/V-only device interfaces as well.

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