Scattering mechanisms of highest-mobility InAs/Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$Sb quantum wells

TL;DR

This study investigates scattering mechanisms affecting the high electron mobility in InAs/AlGaSb quantum wells, identifying dominant scattering processes and achieving record mobilities through optimized buffer and well design.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of scattering mechanisms in high-mobility InAs/AlGaSb quantum wells and demonstrates how buffer and well design influence mobility performance.

Findings

Achieved a mobility of 2.4×10^6 cm^2/Vs at 1×10^12 cm^-2 density.

Identified ionized impurity, boundary, and intersubband scattering as dominant mechanisms.

Observed Landau level crossing structures explained by a single-particle model.

Abstract

We study molecular beam epitaxially grown, undoped Al$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$Sb/InAs/AlSb quantum wells with different buffer and barrier designs and varying quantum well width. The highest mobilities were achieved with Al$_{0.33}$Ga$_{0.67}$Sb buffers and lower barriers and a quantum well width of 24 nm. These quasi-single-interface InAs/AlSb quantum well devices reached a gate-tuned mobility of 2.4$~\times~10^{6}~$cm$^2$/Vs at a density of 1$\times 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$ and 1.3 K. In Hall bar devices boundary scattering is found to strongly influence the mobility determination in this mobility regime. Ionized background impurity scattering at low electron densities, device boundary scattering at intermediate electron densities, and intersubband scattering at high electron densities were identified as most likely dominant scattering processes. Ringlike structures in the Landau fan can be explained using a single-particle model of crossing Landau levels.