Two-dimensional electron gas formation in undoped In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As/In[0.75]Al[0.25]As quantum wells

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the formation of a two-dimensional electron gas in undoped InGaAs/InAlAs quantum wells, revealing a charge origin linked to deep-level donors and confirmed by simulations, advancing understanding of undoped quantum well structures.

Contribution

It introduces undoped InGaAs/InAlAs quantum wells with reduced carrier density and identifies the deep-level donor states as the charge source, supported by experimental and simulation evidence.

Findings

Two-dimensional electron gas achieved in undoped quantum wells

Charge likely due to deep-level donor states in the barrier

Simulation confirms the experimental observations

Abstract

We report on the achievement of a two-dimensional electron gas in completely undoped In[0.75]Al[0.25]As/In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As metamorphic quantum wells. Using these structures we were able to reduce the carrier density, with respect to reported values in similar modulation-doped structures. We found experimentally that the electronic charge in the quantum well is likely due to a deep-level donor state in the In[0.75]Al[0.25]As barrier band gap, whose energy lies within the In[0.75]Ga[0.25]As/In[0.75]Al[0.25]As conduction band discontinuity. This result is further confirmed through a Poisson-Schroedinger simulation of the two-dimensional electron gas structure.