Effect of thermal annealing on hole trap levels in Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

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Abstract
Deep trap levels in a Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are studied with deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The Mg concentration of the sample was 4.8×1019 cm−3, but the hole concentration was as low as 1.3×1017 cm−3 at room temperature. The DLTS spectrum has a dominant peak D1 with an activation energy of 0.41±0.05 eV, accompanied by two additional peaks with activation energies of 0.49±0.09 eV (D2) and 0.59±0.05 eV (D3). It was found that the dominant peak D1 consists of five peaks, each of which has different activation energy and capture cross section. In order to investigate these deep levels further, we performed heat treatment on the same samples to observe the variations of activation energy, capture cross section, and amplitude of DLTS signals. It was found that the longer the heat treatment duration is, the lower the amplitude of DLTS peaks become. This suggests that the decrease of the DLTS signal originates from hydrogen atom outgoing from the film during the annealing process. The possible originality of multiple trap levels was discussed in terms of the Mg–N–H complex.

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