Electrical and structural analysis of high-dose Si implantation in GaN

For the development of ion implantation processes for GaN to advanced devices, it is important to understand the dose dependence of impurity activation along with implantation-induced damage generation and removal. We find that Si implantation in GaN can achieve 50% activation at a dose of 1×1016 cm−2, despite significant residual damage after the 1100 °C activation anneal. The possibility that the generated free carriers are due to implantation damage alone and not Si-donor activation is ruled out by comparing the Si results to those for implantation of the neutral species Ar. Ion channeling and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy are used to characterize the implantation-induced damage both as implanted and after a 1100 °C anneal. Both techniques confirm that significant damage remains after the anneal, which suggests that activation of implanted Si donors in GaN doses not require complete damage removal. However, an improved annealing process may be needed to further optimize the transport properties of implanted regions in GaN.