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Theoretical evidence for the semi-insulating character of AlN

Antonella Fara, Fabio Bernardini, Vincenzo Fiorentini

cond-mat.mtrl-sciarXiv:cond-mat/9807190

Abstract

We present ab initio density-functional calculations for acceptors, donors, and native defects in aluminum nitride, showing that acceptors are deeper (Be ~ 0.25 eV, Mg 0.45 eV) and less soluble than in GaN; at further variance with GaN, both the extrinsic donors SiAl and CAl, and the native donor VN (the anion vacancy) are found to be deep (about 1 to 3 eV below the conduction). We thus predict that doped AlN will generally turn out to be semi-insulating in the normally achieved Al-rich conditions, in agreement with the known doping difficulties of high-x AlGaN alloys.

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