Study of low-frequency excess noise in Ga-polarity GaN epitaxial layers

We report detailed investigations of low-frequency excess noise in Ga-polarity GaN thin films deposited by RF-plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The noise properties of the GaN thin films deposited with and without the intermediate-temperature buffer layers (ITBL) are studied in detailed to examine the effects of the ITBL on the noise. Substantial reduction in the flicker noise levels are observed for samples grown on ITBLs with a Hooge parameter of 3×10-4, which is believed to be the lowest, to date, reported for GaN material. At low-temperatures, Lorentzian bumps originating from the generation-recombination processes are observed. Detailed studies of the temperature dependencies of the voltage noise power spectra have led to the formulation of a model for the observed low-frequency fluctuations. The model stipulates that the phenomenon arises from the thermally activated trapping and detrapping of carriers. The process results in the correlated fluctuations in the carrier number and the Coulombic scattering rate. Quantitative computation shows that number fluctuation dominates in our samples. Numerical evaluation of the deep-levels indicates substantial reduction in the trap density for the Ga-polarity GaN films.