Ohmic Contact to P-Type GaN Enabled by Post-Growth Diffusion of Magnesium

Abstract

We demonstrated the formation of excellent Ohmic contact to p-type GaN (including the plasma etching-damaged p-type GaN which otherwise exhibited undetectable current within ±5 V) by the post-growth diffusion of magnesium. The specific contact resistivity on the order of 10-4Omega cm2 (extracted at V=0 V) was achieved on the plasma-damaged p-GaN with linear current-voltage characteristics by the transfer length method (TLM) measurement. The improvement in current by a factor of over 109 was also obtained on the plasma-damaged p-n junction diode after the same Mg-treatment. These experimental results indicate a great potential of post-growth diffusion of Mg to overcome the bottleneck of forming a good Ohmic contact to p-GaN.