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Diamond has great potential applications in high-power, high-frequency semiconductor devices because of its wide band gap (5.5 eV), high thermal conductivity (22W/(cm·K)), and high carrier mobility (4500 cm2/(V·s) for electron, and 3800 cm2/(V·s) for hole). It has been widely considered as an ultimate semiconductor. From the analysis of our previous work, we find that the output current of field effect transistor based on hydrogen-terminated polycrystalline diamond is usually larger than that based on single crystal diamond, and that the preferential orientations of the polycrystalline diamond are mainly \begin{document}$ \langle 110\rangle $\end{document} and \begin{document}$ \langle 111\rangle $\end{document} shown by XRD results. Therefore, in order to further analyze the effect of surface orientation on the device performance of hydrogen-terminated diamond field effect transistor (FET), we study the devices fabricated respectively on the (110) plane and (111) plane single crystal diamond plates obtained from a single 3.5-mm-thick single crystal diamond grown by the microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition on the high-pressure high-temperature synthesized diamond substrate. Prior to processing the device, these diamond plates are characterized by atomic force microscope, Raman spectra and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The results of Raman and PL spectra show that (110) plane and (111) plane plates originating from the same CVD single crystal diamond have no significant difference in optical property. Then the normally-on hydrogen-terminated diamond FET with a gate length of 6 μm is achieved. The device on (111) plane delivers a saturation drain current of 80.41 mA/mm at a gate voltage VGS = –4 V, which is approximately 1.4 times that of the device on (110) plane. Meanwhile, the on-resistance of the device on (111) plane is 48.51 Ω·mm, and it is only 67% of the device on (110) plane. Analyses of the capacitance-voltage show that the hole concentration of the gated device on (110) plane and (111) plane are 1.34 × 1013 cm–2 and 1.45 × 1013 cm–2, respectively, approximately at the same level. In addition, the hole density of the device on both (110) and (111) plane increase near-linearly with the increase of gate voltage from the threshold voltage to – 4 V, indicating that the control effect of the gate on the carrier in the channel is uniform. The possible reason for the higher saturation drain current as well as the lower on-resistance of the device on (111) plane is that its sheet resistance is lower.

In this study, we have reported on growth of thick AlGaN layer on the c-plane sapphire substrate with low-temperature AlN (LT-AlN) nucleation layer by low-pressure metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (LPMOCVD). High resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been employed to study the crystal quality, threading dislocation density, surface morphology, and optical properties of thick AlGaN layer. Results indicate that the insertion of LT-AlN nucleation layer between sapphire substrate and high-temperature AlN nucleation layer effectively improves the thick AlGaN crystal quality, reduces the surface roughness and eliminates the threading dislocation density.

Diamond has a great potential to be used in high-power, high-voltage and high-frequency semiconductor devices due to its wide band gap (5.5 eV), high breakdown field (> 10 MV/cm), high thermal conductivity (22 W/(cm·K)), and good carrier transport property. High-quality polycrystal diamond with large size wafers (up to several inches) is more easily obtained than the expensive monocrystal diamond plate with the size of only several mm2, and the good performance of electronic device on polycrystal diamond has been reported. So we fabricate a normally-on hydrogen-terminated polycrystal diamond field effect transistor with a 4-μm aluminum gate by using a gold mask process. The saturation drain current is 160 mA/mm, and the on-resistance is as low as 37.85 Ω ·mm. The maximum transconductance reaches 32 mS/mm, and the gate voltage range with the transconductance higher than 90% of its maximum value reaches 3 V (-2 V ≤ VGS ≤ -5 V). An Ohmic contact resistance of 5.52 Ω ·mm and a quite low square resistance of 5.71 kΩ/sq for the hydrogen-terminated diamond are extracted from the analysis of transmission line model measurement. On the basis of the analyses of the obtained results, the on-resistance of device dependent on gate voltage, and the capacitance-voltage data measured at the gate-source diode, we find that the hole sheet density under the gate reaches 1.56×1013 cm-2 at a gate voltage of -5 V, and the extracted effective mobility of the holes stays at about 170 cm2/(V·s) in the afore-mentioned gate voltage range with high transconductance. In summary, the high and broad transconductance peak and the low on-resistance are attributed to the relatively low gate-source and gate-drain series resistance, the high-density carriers in the channel, and the high-level mobility achieved over a large gate voltage range. The relevant research of finding proper dielectrics for the gate insulator and the passivation layer is under way to further improve the device performance.

Electromagnetic field distribution in the vertical metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) reactor is simulated by using the finite element method (FEM). The effects of alternating current frequency, intensity, coil turn number and the distance between the coil turns on the distribution of the Joule heat are analysed separately, and their relations to the value of Joule heat are also investigated. The temperature distribution on the susceptor is also obtained. It is observed that the results of the simulation are in good agreement with previous measurements.

Diamond has been considered as an ultimate semiconductor, which has great potential applications in high power, high frequency semiconductor devices. Up to now, the twodimensional hole gas (2DHG) induced on the hydrogenterminated diamond surface is used most popularly to form electric conduction in diamond semiconductor at room temperature, due to the obstacle caused by lacking of easily-ionized dopants. A 200-nm-thick single crystalline diamond is grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition on the type-Ib high-pressure high-temperature synthesized diamond substrate. Then the sample is treated in hydrogen plasma atmosphere to achieve hydrogen terminated diamond surface. The sample is characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscope. After that, the normally-on hydrogen-terminated diamond field effect transistors are achieved. The device with a gate length of 2 μup m delivers a saturation leakage current of 96 mA/mm at gate voltage VGS=-6 V, at which, however, the gate leakage current is too large. The saturation current reaches 77 mA/mm at VGS=-3.5 V with safety. The device shows typical long-channel behavior. The gate voltage varies almost linearly. In the saturation region of the device, the transconductance (gm) increases near-linearly to 30 mS/mm with the increase of the gate voltage in a range of 5.9 V. Analyses of the on-resistance and capacitance-voltage (C-V) data show that the 2DHG under the gate achieves a density as high as 1.99×1013 cm-2, and the extracted channel carrier density and mobility are always kept increasing with VGS negatively shifting to -2.5 V. The nearlinearly increasing of gm in a large VGS range is attributed to high 2DHG density, quite a large gate capacitance (good gate control), and increased mobility. The relevant researches of improving the carrier mobility in the channel and of finding proper gate dielectrics to improve the forward gate breakdown voltage are underway.

First-order Raman scatterings of hexagonal GaN layers deposited by the hydride vapour phase epitaxy and by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition on SiC and sapphire substrates are studied in a temperature range between 303 K and 503 K. The temperature dependences of two GaN Raman modes (A1 (LO) and E2 (high)) are obtained. We focus our attention on the temperature dependence of E2 (high) mode and find that for different types of GaN epilayers their temperature dependences are somewhat different. We compare their differences and give them an explanation. The simplified formulas we obtained are in good accordance with experiment data. The results can be used to determine the temperature of a GaN sample.

Nonpolar (112?0) a-plane GaN films are grown by metal?organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) on r-plane (11?02) sapphire. The samples are irradiated with neutrons under a dose of 1 ? 1015 cm?2. The surface morphology, the crystal defects and the optical properties of the samples before and after irradiation are analysed using atomic force microscopy (AFM), high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and photoluminescence (PL). The AFM result shows deteriorated sample surface after the irradiation. Careful fitting of the XRD rocking curve is carried out to obtain the Lorentzian weight fraction. Broadening due to Lorentzian type is more obvious in the as-grown sample compared with that of the irradiated sample, indicating that more point defects appear in the irradiated sample. The variations of line width and intensity of the PL band edge emission peak are consistent with the XRD results. The activation energy decreases from 82.5 meV to 29.9 meV after irradiation by neutron.

Quality properties and internal defects of unintentionally doped GaN films grown on 0.3 vicinal sapphire (0001) substrates by MOCVD are investigated by TEM. The results show that plenty of dislocations in the GaN films prepared on vicinal sapphire substrates are annihilated in the areas with a distance of 0.8 m away from substrates, and that dislocations gather in the GaN films. Based on these phenomena, a mechanism for dislocation annihilation in the GaN film prepared on vicinal substrate is proposed, which is capable of explaining the fact that vicinal substrates are able to improve the qualities of GaN films.

The anisotropic strain of a nonpolar (110) a-plane GaN epilayer on an r-plane (102) sapphire substrate, grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapour deposition is investigated by Raman spectroscopy. The room-temperature Raman scattering spectra of nonpolar a-plane GaN are measured in surface and edge backscattering geometries. The lattice is contracted in both the c- and the m-axis directions, and the stress in the m-axis direction is larger than that in the c-axis direction. On the surface of this sample, a number of cracks appear only along the m-axis, which is confirmed by the scanning electron micrograph. Atomic force microscopy images reveal a significant decrease in the root-mean-square roughness and the density of submicron pits after the stress relief.