On the electrical properties of Si-doped InGaP layers grown by low pressure‐metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

The electrical properties of undoped and silicon doped InGaP layers grown lattice matched on GaAs by low pressure metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy were investigated under different growth conditions. The possible presence of superlattice ordering was excluded by photoluminescence analysis. Undoped layers exhibited a background p-type contamination of the order of 1016 cm− 3; the role of possible carbon contamination is discussed. Capacitance–voltage and Hall investigation of Si-doped n-type layers evidenced a room temperature free electron density linearly increasing from 3.6 × 1016 to 6 × 1018 cm− 3 as a function of the Si precursor flow. The corresponding electron mobilities decreased from 1800 to 483 cm2/V s. At lower temperatures, the conductivity and mobility of the n-doped samples showed a metallic like behavior, in some cases with values not consistent with a simple electronic transport into the conduction band, suggesting the presence of an additional parallel transport channel. Five main electron traps were identified by deep level transient spectroscopy and among them, two traps resulted to be dominant, one turned out to play a major role in the bulk, probably associated to the Si doping, and the other was active near the InGaP surface, ascribable to P-related defects.

► Unusual p-type conductivity in unintentionally InGaP/GaAs doped samples. ► RT electron mobility in InGaP:Si is comparable to the best data in the literature. ► Parallel conduction mechanisms in low Si-doped InGaP on GaAs layers. ► Five main traps are identified.