Persistent Photoconductivity in a High Mobility two Dimensional Electron Gas in an AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure

Temperature-variable Hall and Shubnikov- de Haas effects have been used to study persistent photoconductivity in an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction. At liquid helium temperatures, the mobility in this structure was close to 55000 cm2/Vs. A blue GaN-based light emitting diode was used to illuminate the sample. This illumination resulted in a persistent photocurrent, which allowed us to vary the carrier density and study the dependence of the mobility on the carrier concentration. Exposing the sample to this light resulted in an increase in the carrier density. For small increases in the density, the mobility also increased. However, unlike in previous reports by other authors, extended illumination resulted in an increase in the density and a decrease in the mobility. The initial increase in the mobility is attributed to increased screening due to the increase in the carrier density, while the decrease in the mobility may be attributed to alloy scattering.