Charge carrier transport properties in layer structured hexagonal boron nitride

Due to its large in-plane thermal conductivity, high temperature and chemical stability, large energy band gap (˜ 6.4 eV), hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has emerged as an important material for applications in deep ultraviolet photonic devices. Among the members of the III-nitride material system, hBN is the least studied and understood. The study of the electrical transport properties of hBN is of utmost importance with a view to realizing practical device applications. Wafer-scale hBN epilayers have been successfully synthesized by metal organic chemical deposition and their electrical transport properties have been probed by variable temperature Hall effect measurements. The results demonstrate that undoped hBN is a semiconductor exhibiting weak p-type at high temperatures (> 700 °K). The measured acceptor energy level is about 0.68 eV above the valence band. In contrast to the electrical transport properties of traditional III-nitride wide bandgap semiconductors, the temperature dependence of the hole mobility in hBN can be described by the form of μ ∝ (T/T0)−α with α = 3.02, satisfying the two-dimensional (2D) carrier transport limit dominated by the polar optical phonon scattering. This behavior is a direct consequence of the fact that hBN is a layer structured material. The optical phonon energy deduced from the temperature dependence of the hole mobility is ħω = 192 meV (or 1546 cm-1), which is consistent with values previously obtained using other techniques. The present results extend our understanding of the charge carrier transport properties beyond the traditional III-nitride semiconductors.