%0 Journal Article
%T Theoretical evidence for the semi-insulating character of AlN
%A Antonella Fara
%A Fabio Bernardini
%A Vincenzo Fiorentini
%J Physics
%D 1998
%I arXiv
%R 10.1063/1.369197
%X We present ab initio density-functional calculations for acceptors, donors, and native defects in aluminum nitride, showing that acceptors are deeper (Be ~ 0.25 eV, Mg_ 0.45 eV) and less soluble than in GaN; at further variance with GaN, both the extrinsic donors Si_Al and C_Al, and the native donor V_N (the anion vacancy) are found to be deep (about 1 to 3 eV below the conduction). We thus predict that doped AlN will generally turn out to be semi-insulating in the normally achieved Al-rich conditions, in agreement with the known doping difficulties of high-x AlGaN alloys.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9807190v1