Low Resistance Optically Transparent Contacts to p–type GaN Using Oxidized Ni/Au and ITO for LED Application

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe report on a high transparency low resistance contact to p-GaN composed of a thin oxidized Ni/Au bilayer overcoated with indium tin oxide (NiO/Au/ITO). The NiO/Au/ITO layer shows a specific contact resistivity, c, of 1.8 × 10−3 Ωcm2 that is nearly ten times lower than conventional Ni/Au annealed under N2. Measurements on fully processed LEDs with a NiO/Au/ITO current spreading layer (CSL) show an operating voltage of around 4 V at 20 mA that is comparable to LEDs fabricated with a conventional Ni/Au CSL and a dramatic improvement over the previous ITO data. LED top surface light emission through the NiO/Au/ITO CSL is shown to be greater than that from LEDs with a conventional semi-transparent Ni/Au CSL. Taken together, these results demonstrate the feasibility of using NiO/Au/ITO as a CSL for high performance GaN LEDs.