Contactless electroreflectance studies of surface potential barrier for N- and Ga-face epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Two series of N- and Ga-face GaN Van Hoof structures were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy to study the surface potential barrier by contactless electroreflectance (CER). A clear CER resonance followed by strong Franz-Keldysh oscillation of period varying with the thickness of undoped GaN layer was observed for these structures. This period was much shorter for N-polar structures that means smaller surface potential barrier in these structures than in Ga-polar structures. From the analysis of built-in electric field it was determined that the Fermi-level is located 0.27 +/- 60.05 and 0.60 +/- 60.05 eV below the conduction band for N- and Ga-face GaN surface, respectively. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.