High-Mobility Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at InGaN/InN Heterointerface Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Due to the intrinsic spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization effect, III-nitride semiconductor heterostructures are promising candidates for generating 2D electron gas (2DEG) system. Among III-nitrides, InN is predicted to be the best conductive-channel material because its electrons have the smallest effective mass and it exhibits large band offsets at the heterointerface of GaN/InN or AlN/InN. Until now, that prediction has remained theoretical, due to a giant gap between the optimal growth windows of InN and GaN, and the difficult epitaxial growth of InN in general. The experimental realization of 2DEG at an InGaN/InN heterointerface grown by molecular beam epitaxy is reported here. The directly probed electron mobility and the sheet electron density of the InGaN/InN heterostructure are determined by Hall-effect measurements at room temperature to be 2.29 × 10³ cm² V^-1 s^-1 and 2.14 × 10¹³ cm^-2, respectively, including contribution from the InN bottom layer. The Shubnikov-de Haas results at 3 K confirm that the 2DEG has an electron density of 3.30 × 10¹² cm^-2 and a quantum mobility of 1.48 × 10³ cm² V^-1 s^-1. The experimental observations of 2DEG at the InGaN/InN heterointerface have paved the way for fabricating higher-speed transistors based on an InN channel.