Correlation between hot-electron-stress-induced degradation and cathodoluminescence in InP-based HEMTs

Low temperature spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence has been used to study the effects of electrical degradation induced by hot-electron-stress on the optical transitions in lattice matched InAlAs/InGaAs/InP HEMTs. A clear reduction of the cathodoluminescence emission collected from the gate–drain region of stressed devices has been found, indicating a modification of the trap density inside the device. Depth resolved analyses from the gate–drain region before and after stress evidenced that the electric field due to the traps induced by the hot-electron-stress mainly influenced a device region between the highly doped InAlAs and InGaAs cap layers and the n+ doped donor and undoped spacer? InAlAs layers. The effect of the hot electron stress has been evidenced mainly on the cathodoluminescence transitions from the InAlAs layers. No evidence of a possible influence on the intrinsic InGaAs channel has been found.