Role of nitrogen in the mobility drop of electrons in modulation-doped GaAsN/AlGaAs heterostructures

We report transport properties of a 2 dimension electron gas (2DEG) in molecular beam epitaxy-grown GaAs1-xNx/AlGaAs modulation-doped heterostructures. Quantum oscillations in far infrared cyclotron resonance prove the efficient electron transfer and formation of the 2DEG. The 2DEG mobility strongly depends on the N concentration in the channel layer. It shows a drastic decrease as compared to N-free samples, even for the smallest amount of N (0.02%). For this N composition, the electron effective mass was found to be 0.073m(0). Reduced growth temperature (450 degreesC) was found to improve the mobility of N-containing channels. Examination of transport properties' from 4 to 300 K and cyclotron resonance experiments give evidence of the presence of ionised impurity-like scattering centres in GaAsN. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.