The electrical breakdown properties of GaAs layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy at low temperature

The electrical properties of as-grown low temperature (LT) GaAs grown at 200-300 degrees C have been investigated in the temperature range of 100-400 K. It was found that the resistivity of the LT GaAs layer increased as the growth temperature was increased from 200 degrees C to 300 degrees C. Correspondingly, over the same growth temperature range, the breakdown field decreased from 320 kV cm^-1 to 80 kV cm^-1, yet was more than one order of magnitude higher than that of semi-insulating GaAs. The breakdown voltage V_BD was found to increase as the measurement temperature was decreased, differing from the behaviour of conventional avalanche breakdown. The transport properties of LT GaAs were characterized by hopping conduction at low electric field and low temperature. The particular properties of the as-grown LT GaAs layers suggest a useful application as in insulator in GaAs field effect transistors (FETS). The predominant ohmic behaviour resulting from hopping conduction, produces a uniform field in the material, which prevents the breakdown at the gate edge of the FETS or at the surface. The high breakdown strength suggests enhanced performance in power devices.