Analysis of electrical conduction in an n -type GaAs epilayer

The magnetic field dependence of conductivity tensor components, magnetoresistance, and the Hall coefficient have been analyzed in an n-type Si-doped GaAs epilayer at temperatures from 11 to 295 K. Carriers from the conduction band and the impurity band take part in the electrical conduction. The conduction band is located in the epilayer and the impurity band is located in a narrow layer, less than 0.1 μm thick, between the GaAs buffer and GaAs semi-insulating substrate. At temperatures below 20 K the localization and magnetic freeze-out of the conduction band electrons have been taken into account as quantum corrections to the electrical conduction. The dependence of the mobility on energy has been considered in the analysis of the experimental data. A wide peak of partial conductions versus mobility appears in the mobility spectrum. From the analysis of the mobility spectrum of conduction band electrons it follows that at low temperatures the mobility of non-degenerated conduction band electrons is limited by scattering on screened charge centers. The mobility spectrum technique has been used as a tool for interpolation and extrapolation of the experimental data beyond the experimentally investigated magnetic field range.