2022 PhotonIcs & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), Hangzhou, China, 25–27 April

Study of Two-dimensional Plasmon Resonance of a Grating Gate

HEMT
Hongyang Guo, Ping Zhang, Shaomeng Wang, Shengpeng Yang, and Yubin Gong
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, UESTC, China
2022 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS) | 978-1-6654-6023-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/PIERS55526.2022.9792734

Abstract— In this paper, the two-dimensional plasmon resonance in a grating-gated GaN high
electron mobility transistor (HEMT) are studied based on COMSOL Multiphysics software. The
terahertz (THz) reflectance spectrum of the grating-gated HEMT is achieved, the 2-D electrical
field distribution and plasma wave along the channel are observed. In addition, the effects of
grating period and gate duty ratio on two-dimensional plasmon resonance characteristics are
analyzed. The study of the 2-D plasmon resonance in the grating-gated HEMT is valuable for
exploring the optimum plasmonic terahertz devices.

1. INTRODUCTION
According to Dyakonov-Shur instability theory proposed in 1993, under specific boundary condi-
tions, terahertz plasma wave can be amplified in HEMTs and produce THz emission [1]. Compared
to single gate, grating gate in HEMT can improve the coupling efficiency between THz power and
plasmon resonance, thus the grating-gated HEMT can improve the radiation power as emitters
and increase the detection sensitivity as detectors [2, 3]. D. V. Fateev et al. regarded gated and
ungated 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) as conducting currents with different conductivities
and analyzed the effects of ungated regions on the plasmon modes [4]. V. V. Popov calculated
the transmission spectrum of a grating-gated HEMT analytically and analyzed the nonlinearity
of plasma wave of the transmission spectrum [5]. In this paper, the 2DEG is regarded as a sheet
current with same AC conductivity in gated and ungated region and the 2D plasmon resonance
characteristics in a grating-gated HEMT is studied.

2. THE 2-D PLASMON RESONANCE IN THE GRATING-GATED GAN HEMT

The simulation model of the GaN gratinggated HEMT is depicted as Fig. 1. The HEMT is made up
of three parts: the substrate/buffer layer, the barrier layer and the grating gate. The thicknesses of
substrate layer barrier layer and grating gate are 1 µm, 42 nm and 60 nm, respectively. The period
of grating is 1 µm and the gate duty ratio is 0.5. The relative permittivity of GaN and AlGaN are
set to 8.9 and 9.4, respectively. In order to simplify the simulation model, the areal concentration
of 2DEG under gated region and ungated region are the same, the AC conductivity of 2DEG can
be deduced through the hydrodynamic equations and satisfies [6]

e2 jωn0
σ= ¡ ¢ (1)
me jω − jβv0 + τ1 (jω − jβv0 )

where, n0 is areal concentration of 2DEG, ν0 is electron DC velocity, β is the wavenumber of plasma

wave, τ is electron relaxation time.

Figure 1: The simulation model of the 2D GaN HEMT.

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 2022 PhotonIcs & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), Hangzhou, China, 25–27 April

Figure 2: The reflectance spectrum of the grating-gated HEMT with normal incidence of THz wave

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3: (a) The 2-D distribution of the electric field amplitude, (b) 1-D distribution of electrical field Ex
and (c) areal current along the channel when the frequency of incident wave was 3 THz.

During the simulation, n0 is set as 1.2 × 1017 m−2 , ν0 is set as 2 × 105 m/s and τ is set as 0.8 ps.
Periodic boundary conditions are applied in x direction. The THz wave is normally incident from
the bottom side of the HEMT and the S parameter is achieved as shown in Fig. 2. From the
reflectance spectrum, incident wave with frequency of 3 THz is absorbed by the 2DEG and 2D
plasmon resonance is excited. This result matches with results in [7] very well. As shown in Fig. 2,
the second plasmon mode is at 7 THz with a weak absorption of THz wave.
Then the 2D distribution of electrical field amplitude at 3 THz is depicted as shown in Fig. 3(a),
it can be seen that the electrical field mainly distributes in the barrier layer. The x component of
electrical field Ex and areal current density J along the channel is shown in Figs. 3(b) and (c). It
shows that the plasma wave length at the first mode is the same as grating period and the phase
variations along the channel of Ex and J are the same. The plasma wave shape is not exactly in
the form of sine function.
Then, the effects of grating period and gate duty ratio on 2-D plasmon resonance are analyzed
as shown in Fig. 4. When fixing the duty ratio and increasing the grating period from 400 nm to
1000 nm, the frequency of first plasmon mode reduces. Similarly, keeping grating period the same
and raising the gate duty ratio also make the resonance frequency falling. When the grating period
was 400 nm and the gate duty ratio was 0.3, the resonance frequency was the highest and was about
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2022 PhotonIcs & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS), Hangzhou, China, 25–27 April

6.48 THz. When the grating period is 1000 nm and gate duty ratio is 0.7, the resonance frequency
is 2.66 THz.

Figure 4: The 2-D plasmon resonance frequency corresponding to different grating period and gate duty
ratio.

3. CONCLUSION
The 2-D plasmon resonance characteristics of a gratinggate GaN HEMT has been analyzed. The
THz reflectance spectrum has been achieved firstly. The 2D electrical field distribution and 1D
distribution of electrical field and areal current along the 2DEG at 3 THz were studied. At last, the
effects of grating period and gate duty ratio on the resonance frequency were analyzed, when the
grating period and ratio duty increased, the 2-D plasmon resonance frequency decreased. The study
of the 2-D plasmon resonance is meaningful for exploring the optimum THz plasmonic devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 92163204
and 61921002).
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