Acoustic phonon scattering of two-dimensional electrons in GaN/AlGaN heterostructures

We have measured the temperature dependence of the mobility of the two-dimensional electron gas in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on bulk GaN substrates. The linear dependence of the inverse mobility on temperature at temperatures below 50 K indicates the importance of acoustic phonon scattering in these high mobility heterostructures. Using the temperature dependence of the mobility at a range of carrier densities, we determined the GaN conduction band deformation potential to be a_c=9.1±0.7eV. This result provides a crucial parameter for accurate calculations of intrinsic mobility limits in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures.