The activation annealing of Si-implanted GaN is reported for temperatures from 1100 to 1400 °C. Although previous work has shown that Si-implanted GaN can be activated by a rapid thermal annealing at ∼1100 °C, it was also shown that significant damage remained in the crystal. Therefore, both AlN-encapsulated and uncapped Si-implanted GaN samples were annealed in a metal organic chemical vapor deposition system in a N2/NH3 ambient to further assess the annealing process. Electrical Hall characterization shows increases in carrier density and mobility for annealing up to 1300 °C before degrading at 1400 °C due to decomposition of the GaN epilayer. Rutherford backscattering spectra show that the high annealing temperatures reduce the implantation induced damage profile but do not completely restore the as-grown crystallinity.

Single crystalline GaN-layers were implanted with radioactive 111In ions. The lattice location of the ions and the recovery of the implantation induced damage was studied using the emission channeling technique and perturbed-γγ-angular-correlation spectroscopy as a function of the annealing temperature. We find the majority of indium atoms on substitutional sites even directly after room temperature implantation, but within a heavily disturbed surrounding. During isochronal annealing treatments in vacuum, a gradual recovery of the implantation damage takes place between 873 K and 1173 K. After 1173 K annealing about 50 % of the In atoms occupy substitutional lattice sites with defect free surroundings.

The temperature dependence of the specific contact resistance of W and WSi0.44 contacts on n+ In0.55Ga0.35N and InN was measured in the range -50 °C to 125 °C. The results were compared to theoretical values for different conduction mechanisms, to further elucidate the conduction mechanism in these contact structures. The data indicates the conduction mechanism is field emission for these contact schemes for all but as-deposited metal to InN where thermionic emission appears to be the dominant mechanism. The contacts were found to produce low specific resistance ohmic contacts to InGaN at room temperature, ϱc ∼ 10-7 Ω ·cm2 for W and ϱc of 4× 10-7 Ω ·cm for WSix. InN metallized with W produced ohmic contacts with ϱc ∼ 10-6 Ω ·cm and ϱc ∼ 10-6 Ω ·cm. for WSix at room temperature.

Ohmic contacts to Mg-doped p-GaN grown by MOCVD [1] are studied using a circular transmission line model (TLM) to avoid the need for isolation. For samples which use a p-dopant activation anneal before metallization, no appreciable difference in the specific contact resistance, rc, as a function of different capping options is observed. However, a lower rc is obtained when no pre-metallization anneal is employed, and the post-metallization anneal simultaneously activates the p-dopant and anneals the contact. This trend is shown for Pt/Au, Pt, Pd/Pt/Au, and Ni/Au contacts to p-GaN. The rc 's for these metal contacts are in the range of 1.4–7.6 × 10-3 ohm-cm2 at room temperature at a bias of 10mA. No particular metallization formula clearly yields a consistently superior contact. Instead, the temperature of the contact has the strongest influence.

Detailed studies of the electrical properties of the Pt/Au contacts reveal that the I-V linearity improves significantly with increasing temperature. At room temperature, a slightly rectified I-V characteristic curve is obtained, while at 200°C and above, the I-V curve is linear. For all the p-GaN samples, it is also found that the sheet resistance decreases by an order of magnitude with increasing temperature from 25°C to 350°C. The specific contact resistance is also found to decrease by nearly an order of magnitude for a temperature increase of the same range. A minimum rc of 4.2 × 10-4 ohm-cm2 was obtained at a temperature of 350°C for a Pt/Au contact. This result is the lowest reported rc for ohmic contacts to p-GaN.

We report the low resistance ohmic contacts to p-GaN using a Pd/Au bimetal scheme. A specific contact resistivity of 9.1 × 10-3 Ω-cm2 was obtained after annealing. The metallization was e-beam evaporated on 2 μm-thick p-GaN (∼ 9 × 1016/cm3) layers grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The comparison with other contacts showed that the contact resistivity of the Pd/Au contacts was at least one order smaller than those of Pt/Au and Ni/Au contacts.

Metallurgical reactions between Ni and GaN have been explored at temperatures between 400 and 900 °C in N2, Ar, and forming gas. A trend of increasing Ga content in the reacted films was observed with increasing temperature. The reactions are consistent with the thermodynamics of the Ni-Ga-N system. Changes in the film morphology on annealing were also examined. Metal island formation and a corresponding deep, non-uniform metal penetration into GaN were observed at high temperatures. The relevance of the observed nature of phase formation and morphology in these thin films to electrical properties of Ni/GaN and Au/Ni/GaN contacts is also considered.

AlN has been identified as a candidate material for cold cathode field emitters due to its purported negative electron affinity (NEA) surface. Recent studies by our group on AlN(0001) using angle-resolved ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (ARUPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have indicated that AlN(0001) is a positive electron affinity surface. We have also investigated electron field emission behavior of AlN and pure Al films grown on Si. AlN and Al films were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and transported via an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) integrated processing system (IPS) to an electron emission measurement system (EEMS). The reference Al film on Si showed characteristic Fowler-Nordheim behavior with a turn-on field of 120V/μm (defined at 10μA-cm-2) and ∼100μA-cm-2 emission at 140V/μm. The AlN film also showed Fowler-Nordheim behavior with a turn-on field of 60V/μm and ∼10mA-cm-2 at 100V/μm. Air exposure of the AlN film caused a shift in turn-on to 90V/μm and ∼0.1mA-cm-2 at 100V/μm. The I-V behavior of the AlN film is consistent with the ARUPS results on a different AlN sample - both indicating a positive electron affinity AlN surface.

We present a summary of recent progress towards the understanding of the valence-band physics in wurtzite GaN. Systematic studies have been performed on the strain dependence of the free exciton resonance energies by photoreflectance measurements using well-characterized samples. Analyzing the experimental data with the Hamiltonian appropriate for the valence bands, the values have been determined of the crystal field splitting, the spin-orbit splitting, the shear deformation potential constants, and the energy gap in the unstrained crystal. Discussions are given on the strain dependence of the energy gaps, of the effective masses, and of the binding energies for the free exciton ground states as well as on the valence band parameters. Using the obtained values and the generalized Elliott formula, the fundamental optical absorption spectra obtained experimentally were analyzed. The values of the elastic stiffness constants, which play a crucial role to determine the shear deformation potential constants, are also given.

In this paper, we present the first calculations of the electron and hole impact ionizatioi coefficients for both wurtzite and zincblende phase GaN as a function of the applied electrii field. The calculations are made using an ensemble Monte Carlo simulator including the ful details of the conduction and valence bands derived from an empirical pseudopotentia calculation. The interband impact ionization transition rates for both carrier species an determined by direct numerical integration including a wavevector dependent dielectric function It is found that the electron and hole ionization coefficients are comparable in zincblende Ga> at an applied field of ∼ 3 MV/cm, yet vary to a slight degree at both higher and lower applied field strengths. In the wurtzite phase, the electron and hole coefficients are comparable at hig] fields but diverge at lower applied fields. The most striking result is that the ionization rates an predicted to be substantially different for both carrier species between the two phases. It i predicted that the ionization rates for both carrier species in the zincblende phase are significanti; higher than in the wurtzite phase over the full range of applied fields examined.

In this paper we consider the role of collective excitations in transport of charge carriers in the conduction band of diamond and GaN. The present molecular dynamics simulation uses a Monte Carlo algorithm to determine the time between collisions with scattering rates calculated quantum mechanically using the Fermi Golden Rule. For very thin films (L=0.01 μm) and for low fields (F<10 V/μm), the energy spectra of both diamond and GaN contain a series of peaks which are attributed to the absorption and emission of discrete plasmons. In diamond. the intervalley LA, LO and TO scattering becomes increasingly more important at higher fields while electron-plasmon interactions decrease. For thicker diamond films (L=0.1 μm), there is hot electron transport for F∼10 V/μm and quasi-ballistic transport for F-100 V/μm. In GaN with L=0.01 μm and fields F∼10 V/μm, there is a discrete series of peaks in the energy spectrum corresponding to excitations associated with polar optical scattering.

In this paper, we studied the electrical and optical characteristics of Nichia double heterostructure blue light-emitting diodes, with In0.06Ga0.94N:Zn, Si active layer, at 77 and 300 K. Measurement of the forward bias current-voltage behavior of the device demonstrates a departure from the Shockley model of p-n diodes, and it is observed that the dominant mechanism of carrier transport across the junction is associated with carrier tunneling. Electroluminescence experiments of the devices were performed. We obtained an emission peak located at 2.80 eV, and a relatively weaker short-wavelength peak of 3.2 eV. A significant blue shifts of the optical emission peak which is consistent with the tunneling character of electrical characteristics was observed. Furthermore, we studied the properties of electroluminescence under various pulsed currents, and a degradation in I-V characteristics and a low resistance ohmic short were observed.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a promising material as gate insulator for 6H-SiC metal-insulator-semiconductor (MlS)-based devices. Using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown AlN, we have recently fabricated Au/AlN/6H-SiC MIS structures with different AlN/6H-SiC interfacial characteristics depending on the AlN growth procedures. We have also found that the use of hydrogen chloride gas is effective in improving the capacitance-voltage characteristics of the AlN/6H-SiC structure. The reason for such improvement is not well understood and several possible mechanisms for such improvement include factors such as substrate surface morphology and surface contaminants. In this paper, we will examine the relationship between surface morphology of the substrates and the capacitance-voltage characteristics of Au/AlN/6H-SiC structures.

The MOCVD growth of InGaN / GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures for optoelectronic applications has been investigated. The structural and optical properties of the layers have been characterized by x-ray diffraction and photoluminescence. The effect of barrier and well dimensions on the optical properties have been examined; highest emission intensity and narrowest linewidth were obtained with thin wells (20–30 Å) and thick barriers (greater than 50 Å). By incorporating an MQW structure as the active region in a GaN p-n diode, high-brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been produced. Under a forward current of 20 raA, these devices emit 2.2 mW of power corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 4.5%. The emission spectrum peaks at 445 nm and exhibits a narrow linewidth of 28 nm. Under pulsed high current conditions, output power as high as 53 mW was realized and the peak emission wavelength shifted to 430 nm.

A microscopic theory of gain in a group-III nitride quantum well laser is presented. The approach, which treats carrier correlations at the level of quantum kinetic theory, gives a consistent account of plasma and excitonic effects in an inhomogeneously broadened system.

Little information is available about the thermal oxidation of GaN. Since GaN is of interest for high temperature electronics, knowledge of the stability of GaN in potentially oxidizing environments would be useful. Furthermore, evaluation of the characteristics of the thermal oxide will provide information needed for assessing the potential of this oxide in processing or device applications.

In this study, thick GaN epilayers and GaN powders were exposed to dry air at 450°C, 750°C, 900°C, 925°C, 950°C, and 1000°C for periods of 1 to 25 hours. Following oxidation, the epilayers were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and glancing incidence x-ray diffraction, and the powders were analyzed by conventional x-ray diffraction. For both the GaN films and powders, significant oxidation was observed at 900°C, and the oxide was identified as monoclinic β-Ga2O3. Oxidation in dry air resulted in roughening of the oxide/GaN interface and oxide surface. In the temperature range 900°C to 1000°C, linear kinetics were observed for times up to 10 hours indicating an interfacial reaction mechanism as the rate limiting step for oxidation. An apparent activation energy of ∼72 kcal/mole was determined for this process.