Electrical transport properties of Si-doped hexagonal boron nitride epilayers

• Published in: AIP advances Vol. 3; no. 12; pp. 122116 - 122116-8
• Main Authors: Majety, S., Doan, T. C., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., Jiang, H. X.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 01.12.2013; AIP Publishing LLC
• Subjects: Boron nitride; BORON NITRIDES; CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION; Dopants; DOPED MATERIALS; Electrical resistivity; ELECTRON MOBILITY; ENERGY LEVELS; HALL EFFECT; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition; Organic chemicals; Organic chemistry; SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS; Silicon; TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE; Wide bandgap semiconductors
• ISSN: 2158-3226; 2158-3226
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4860949

The suitability of Si as an n-type dopant in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) wide bandgap semiconductor has been investigated. Si doped hBN epilayers were grown via in-situ Si doping by metal organic chemical vapor deposition technique. Hall effect measurements revealed that Si doped hBN epilayers exhibit n-type conduction at high temperatures (T > 800 K) with an in-plane resistivity of ∼12 Ω·cm, electron mobility of μ ∼ 48 cm2/V·s and concentration of n ∼ 1 × 1016 cm−3. Temperature dependent resistivity results yielded a Si energy level in hBN of about 1.2 eV, which is consistent with a previously calculated value for Si substitutionally incorporated into the B sites in hBN. The results therefore indicate that Si is not a suitable dopant for hBN for room temperature device applications.