ABSTRACTThe effects of surface preparation and illumination on electric parameters of Au/GaN/GaAs Schottky diode were investigated. The thin GaN film is realized by nitridation of GaAs substrates with different thicknesses of GaN layers (0.7 – 2.2 nm). In order to study the electrical characteristics under illumination, we use an He-Ne laser of 632 nm wavelength. The I(V) current- voltage, the surface photovltage SPV measurement were plotted and analysed taking into consideration the influence of charge exchange between a continuum of the surface states and the semiconductor. The barrier height ФBn, the serial resistance Rs and the ideality factor n are respectively equal to 0.66 eV, 1980 Ω, 2.75 under dark and to 0.65 eV, 1160 Ω, 2.74 under illumination for simple 1 (GaN theckness of 0.7 nm). The interface states density Nss in the gap and the excess of concentration δn are determined by fitting the experimental curves of the surface photovltage SPV with the theoretical ones and are equal to 4.5×1012 eV−1 cm−2, 5×107 cm−3, respectively, for sample 1 and 3.5×1012 eV−1 cm−2, 7×108 cm−3 for sample 2 (GaN theckness of 2 nm). The results confirm that the surface photovoltage is an efficient method for optical and electrical characterizations.