Schottky contacts on ultra-high-pressure-annealed GaN with high rectification ratio and near-unity ideality factor

• Published in: Applied physics express Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 31006 - 31009
• Main Authors: Stein, Shane R., Khachariya, Dolar, Mita, Seiji, Breckenridge, M. Hayden, Tweedie, James, Reddy, Pramod, Sierakowski, Kacper, Kamler, Grzegorz, Boćkowski, Michał, Kohn, Erhard, Sitar, Zlatko, Collazo, Ramón, Pavlidis, Spyridon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IOP Publishing 01.03.2023; Japan Society of Applied Physics
• Subjects: barrier height; ENGINEERING; GaN; ideality factor; ion implantation; JBS diode; Physics; Schottky contact; ultra-high-pressure-annealing
• ISSN: 1882-0778; 1882-0786
• DOI: 10.35848/1882-0786/acc443

Abstract We investigate the electrical characteristics of Ni Schottky contacts on n-type GaN films that have undergone ultra-high-pressure annealing (UHPA), a key processing step for activating implanted Mg. Contacts deposited on these films exhibit low rectification and high leakage current compared to contacts on as-grown films. By employing an optimized surface treatment to restore the GaN surface following UHPA, we obtain Schottky contacts with a high rectification ratio of ∼10 9 , a near-unity ideality factor of 1.03, and a barrier height of ∼0.9 eV. These characteristics enable the development of GaN junction barrier Schottky diodes employing Mg implantation and UHPA.