We report on electrical transport in the dark and under ultraviolet (UV) illumination through GaN nanowhiskers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), which is sensitively dependent on the column diameter. This new effect is quantitatively described by a size dependent surface recombination mechanism. The essential ingredient for the interpretation of this effect is a diameter dependent recombination barrier, which arises from the interplay between column diameter and space charge layer extension at the column surface.

Self-heating effects and temperature rise in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on silicon and sapphire substrates are studied, exploiting transistor dc characterization methods. A negative differential output resistance is observed for high dissipated power levels. An analytical formula for a source-drain current drop as a function of parasitic source resistance and threshold voltage changes is proposed to explain this behavior. The transistor source resistance and threshold voltage is determined experimentally at different elevated temperatures to construct channel temperature versus dissipated power transfer characteristic. It is found that the HEMT channel temperature increases rapidly with dissipated power and at 6 W/mm reaches values of 320 C for sapphire and 95 C for silicon substrate, respectively.

Combined voltage-dependent scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ images with atomic resolution, local scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and simulations of the potential distribution in the interface-STM tip system are used to extract the physical imaging mechanisms of GaAs p-n interfaces in STM images. It is shown that ͑i͒ the tip-induced changes of the potential near the interface result in the tunneling characteristics of the p-type (n-type͒ layer being dragged into the interfaces' depletion region at positive ͑negative͒ sample voltage. ͑ii͒ This leads to a considerable reduction of the apparent width of the image of the depletion zone in STM images. ͑iii͒ At small negative sample voltages, a pronounced depression line appears. The depression is directly correlated with the electronic interface. It arises from the interplay of competing current contributions from the valence and conduction bands. This understanding of the imaging process allows us to develop methods on how to extract accurate physical data about the properties of the electronic interfaces from scanning tunneling microscopy images.

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InN nanowires, grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy, were investigated by means of magnetotransport. By performing temperature-dependent transport measurements and current measurements on a large number of nanowires of different dimensions, it is proven that the carrier transport mainly takes place in a tube-like surface electron gas. Measurements on three representative nanowires under an axially oriented magnetic field revealed pronounced magnetoconductance oscillations with a periodicity corresponding to a single magnetic flux quantum. The periodicity is explained by the effect of the magnetic flux penetrating the coherent circular quantum states in the InN nanowires, rather than by Aharonov-Bohm type interferences. The occurrence of the single magnetic flux quantum periodicity is attributed to the magnetic flux dependence of phase-coherent circular states with different angular momentum quantum numbers forming the one-dimensional transport channels. These phase coherent states can exist because of the almost ideal crystalline properties of the InN nanowires prepared by self-assembled growth.