Low-resistance ohmic contacts to p-type GaN achieved by the oxidation of Ni/Au films

A contact has been developed to achieve a low specific contact resistance to p-type GaN. The contact consisted of a bi-layer Ni/Au film deposited on p-type GaN followed by heat treatment in air to transform the metallic Ni into NiO along with an amorphous Ni-Ga-O phase and large Au grains. A specific contact resistance as low as 4.0×10^-6 Ω cm² was obtained at 500°C. This low value was obtained by the optimization of Ni/Au film thickness and heat treatment temperatures. Below about 400°C, Ni was not completely oxidized. On the other hand, at temperatures higher than about 600°C, the specific contact resistance increased because the NiO detached from p-GaN and the amount of amorphous Ni-Ga-O phase formed was more than that of the sample annealed at 500°C. The mechanism of obtaining low-resistance ohmic contacts for the oxidized Ni/Au films was explained with a model using energy band diagrams of the Au/p-NiO/p-GaN structure. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.