Influence of a new surface treatment method on ohmic contact resistivity of p-type GaN

摘要

The contact resistivity of Ni/Au contact on p-type GaN was drastically decreased through the surface treatments in sequence using alcohol-based HCl and KOH solution. The surface oxide on p-type GaN formed during epitaxial growth was removed in the alcohol-based HCl and KOH solution, The O 1s and C 1s core-level peaks in the x-ray photoemission spectra showed that the alcohol-based HCl treatment was more effective in removing of the surface oxide layer. Compared to the KOH solution treated sample, the alcohol-based HCl-treated sample showed a Ga 2p core-level peak which was shifted toward the valence-band edge by 0.3 eV, indicating that the surface Fermi level was shifted toward the valence-band edge. These results suggest that the surface barrier height for hole injection from Ni/Au metal to p-type GaN be lowered by the surface treatment, which results in a drastic reduction in specific contact resistance.