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Encapsulant-Dependent Effects of Long-Term Low-Temperature Annealing on Interstitial Defects in Mg-Ion-Implanted GaN

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Abstract

The encapsulant-dependent effects of long-term low-temperature annealing on defects in Mg-ion-implanted GaN were investigated using metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) diodes. Annealing was carried out at 600°C under nitrogen flow without or with a cap layer of Al2O3, SiO2, or SiN. For annealing at 600°C for 3 h, the capacitance–voltage characteristics of the Al2O3 cap annealed samples indicated the existence of acceptor-like defects, whereas those of the capless, SiO2 cap and SiN cap annealed samples exhibited bumps, which indicated the existence of a donor-like defect level at around 0.8 eV from the conduction band edge EC. A more distinct result was obtained for annealing at 600°C for 30 h. Namely, annealing of samples with the Al2O3 cap layer induced an acceptor-like defect level at EC−0.9 eV, whereas that with the SiN cap layer induced a donor-like defect level at EC−0.8 eV. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy studies revealed that interstitial Ga (Gai) in Mg-implanted GaN diffused into the Al2O3 cap layer but not into the SiN cap layer after annealing. Most likely, the detected EC−0.8 eV level can be assigned to interstitial Gai.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. T. Narita of Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. for the MOVPE growth of GaN epitaxial layers. This work was supported by MEXT Programs “Research and development of next-generation semiconductor to realize energy-saving society” (Grant Number JPJ005357) and “Creation of innovative core technology for power electronics” (Grant Number JPJ009777).

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  1. Research Center for Integrated Quantum Electronics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0813, Japan

    Masamichi Akazawa & Shunta Murai

  2. Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8601, Japan

    Tetsu Kachi

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  1. Masamichi Akazawa
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Akazawa, M., Murai, S. & Kachi, T. Encapsulant-Dependent Effects of Long-Term Low-Temperature Annealing on Interstitial Defects in Mg-Ion-Implanted GaN. J. Electron. Mater. 51, 1731–1739 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-022-09431-y

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