Low Resistance Ohmic Contacts Formation and Mechanism of Current Transport Through p-GaN and p-AlGaN

Abstract

AbstractWe report the influence of surface treatment, annealing temperature and metal bilayer thickness on the specific contact resistance (ρc) of Au/Ni ohmic contacts to p-GaN and p-AlGaN. Ohmic contact on p-GaN with a hole concentration of 6.5 x 1017 cm-3, shows the lowest ρc of ˜9.2 x 10-6 Ω cm2, when GaN was treated in HCl:H2O (3:1) solution before metal deposition and annealed at 500°C for 10 minutes in 90% N2 and 0% O2 atmosphere. Similar procedure applied on p-AlxGa1-xN (x = 5-7%), with a hole concentration of 2.3 x 1017 cm-3, yields a ρc of 1.8 x 10-4 Ω cm2. An increase is observed in ρc when Mg doping exceeds 4 x 1019 cm-3 in both p-GaN and p-AlGaN. This is attributed to Mg self compensation. This increase is more pronounced in AlGaN which we attribute to the presence of residual native aluminum oxides.