Substitutional diffusion of Mg into GaN from GaN/Mg mixture

Abstract

We evaluated Mg-diffusion into GaN from GaN/Mg mixture. The diffusion depth of Mg increased with diffusion temperature from 1100 °C to 1300 °C, whereas the Mg concentration remained constant at 2–3 × 1018 cm−3 independent of temperature. The estimated activation energy for Mg diffusion was 2.8 eV, from which the substitutional diffusion mechanism was predicted. Mg-diffused GaN samples showed p-type conductivity with a maximum hole mobility of 27.7 cm2 V−1 s−1, suggesting that substitutional diffusion contributes to Mg activation. This diffusion technique can be used to easily form p-type GaN and has potential as a p-type selective doping technique.