Magnesium-doped gallium nitride for electronic and optoelectronic device applications

Magnesium doping of gallium nitride (GaN) for p-type conductivity is a crucial technology for a host of optoelectronic and electronic device applications. The performance of many of these devices is presently limited by the various difficulties associated with Mg doping, both fundamental (such as the deep nature of the Mg acceptor) and technological (such as the problems in forming ohmic contacts). Both types of issues are addressed in this work.; Heavy doping effects have been investigated in order to understand the consequences of the high dopant concentration typically employed; increased compensation and a reduction in the acceptor binding energy are among the effects observed. The compensation level is believed to limit the hole mobility in these films, and is found to depend on the choice of growth conditions; the results point to nitrogen vacancies as a likely candidate for one of the compensating donor species.; The optimization of various processing procedures has also been addressed. These include the annealing procedure used to remove the hydrogen passivation as well as ohmic contact recipes. In addition, the electrical effects of plasma-induced damage to the p-type GaN surface are investigated; these effects are particularly important for bipolar transistor applications where a plasma etch is needed in order to reveal the base layer.; The electrical characteristics of GaN p-n junctions formed both with and without dislocations are compared using the lateral epitaxial overgrowth technique; the dislocations are found to be the dominant leakage path in reverse-bias operation. The electrical consequences of the deep Mg acceptor are also addressed. These include the unusual nature of the low-frequency depletion region, and dispersion in the high-frequency depletion region due to the finite response time of the Mg acceptor. Finally, a novel scheme is presented that uses the strong polarization fields present in AlGaN/GaN superlattices to enhance the doping efficiency of the Mg acceptor. The polarization fields lead to hole accumulation in parallel sheets, resulting in a spatially-averaged hole concentration that is temperature-stable and significantly enhanced from that obtained in bulk films.