High free carrier concentration in p-GaN grown on AlN substrates

A high free hole concentration in III-nitrides is important for next generation optoelectronic and high power electronic devices. The free hole concentration exceeding 1018 cm−3 and resistivity as low as 0.7 Ω cm are reported for p-GaN layers grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on single crystal AlN substrates. Temperature dependent Hall measurements confirmed a much lower activation energy, 60–80 mV, for p-GaN grown on AlN as compared to sapphire substrates; the lowering of the activation energy was due to screening of Coulomb potential by free carriers. It is also shown that a higher doping density (more than 5 × 1019 cm−3) can be achieved in p-GaN/AlN without the onset of self-compensation.