NIM B

Beam Interactions
with Materials & Atoms

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 242 (2006) 633636

www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb

Electrical properties of n-type layers formed in GaN

by Si implantation
Y. Furuhashi, S. Yoshida, D. Ozaki, T. Inada

Graduate School of Engineering, Hosei University, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8584, Japan

Available online 27 September 2005

Abstract
Silicon ions have been implanted in undoped GaN layers epitaxially grown on an AlN/(0 0 0 1)-oriented Al2O3 substrate. Carrier-concentration and mobility proles for Si-implanted layers have been examined by dierential Hall-eect measurements. It is shown that
highly doped n-type layers with a peak carrier concentration of 2.1 1020 cm 3 are formed after rapid thermal annealing at 1250
C
for 30 s. Comparison with SIMS proles indicates that a very high electrical activation of Si atoms located near the surface is achieved
after annealing. In a back tail part of the prole, the electrical activity is limited, which will be due to lattice defects remaining after
annealing and acting as carrier trapping centers and/or compensation centers. Values of carrier mobilities are identical to those previously reported for n-type epitaxial GaN layers doped with Si during crystal growth.
 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 61.72.Ww; 68.55.Ln; 68.49.Sf; 85.40.Ry
Keywords: GaN; Ion implantation; RTA; Electrical prole; SIMS prole; RBS

1. Introduction

2. Experimental

There has been an increasing interest in applying ion

implantation to the formation of doped layers in GaN. This
is simply because ion implantation provides selected-area
doping, which is a crucial technology in fabricating planar
devices. Note that doping through thermal diusion is of
no practical use since diusion coecients of dopant impurities in GaN are extremely small. A large number of articles
reporting ion implantation in GaN [15] and reviews [6,7]
have been published. From the viewpoint of device application, a carrier-concentration prole is one of the most
important information. However, the number of publications reporting electrical proles for doped layers in GaN
is limited at this time [8,9]. In this paper, we will present
experimental data on carrier-concentration and mobility
proles of n-type layers formed in GaN by Si implantation
and by subsequent rapid thermal annealing (RTA).

The substrates used in this experiment were undopedGaN/AlN/(0 0 0 1)-Al2O3 wafers, commercially supplied
from Advanced Technology Materials Inc. The nominal
carrier concentration of the top 3 lm-thick, undoped,
n-type GaN layer was less than 1 1016 cm 3. The wafers
were implanted at room temperature with 50- or 100-keV
Si+ ions to a constant dose of 2 1015 cm 2. During
implantation, the wafer was tilted 7
from the incident Si
ion beam to minimize the channeling eect. Si-implanted
samples were processed through RTA at 1250
C for 30 s
in a owing N2 gas. The rate of heating the sample during
RTA was around 50
C/s. Prior to RTA, the Si-implanted
surface was encapsulated with a sputter-deposited, 140 nmthick SixNy layer to avoid the surface deterioration due to
high temperature annealing [9].
The Si-concentration prole for an as-implanted sample
and its change due to RTA were examined by a secondary
ion mass spectroscopic (SIMS) technique using a 3 keV
Cs ion beam in the ULVAC-PHI ADEPT-1010 system.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 42 387 6180; fax: +81 42 387 6122.
E-mail address: taroh@ionbeam.hosei.ac.jp (T. Inada).

0168-583X/$ - see front matter  2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2005.08.112

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Y. Furuhashi et al. / Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 242 (2006) 633636

Carrier-concentration and mobility proles for n-type layers formed were examined by successive Hall-eect and
sheet-resistivity measurements followed by an anodic-oxide
growth and stripping process. The details of the anodization of GaN and the eects of the SixNy encapsulant have
previously reported elsewhere [8,9]. Ohmic contacts on the
Si-implanted surface were made by vacuum deposition of
Al at room temperature and subsequent heat treatment
at 600
C. The annealing characteristics of Si-implanted
layers were examined by Rutherford backscattering and
channeling (RBS) measurements using a collimated beam
of 1.5 MeV He+ ions from the Van de Graa accelerator
of Hosei University and at a scattering angle of 150
.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 1 illustrates the aligned and random RBS spectra
for a 50 keV-implant GaN sample, which were obtained
before and after the RTA. The RBS spectra for a virgin
substrate are also shown in Fig. 1. The Si implantation
caused an increase in aligned yield from Ga atoms in the
substrate and a new peak appeared on the aligned spectrum. This peak is generated from displaced Ga atoms located at around 40 nm from the surface. The projected
peak range (Rp) and the range straggling (DRp) of 50 keV
Si+ ions in GaN are 40 and 20 nm, respectively, as predicted from the SRIM calculation [10]. And, the peak on
the aligned spectrum is caused from displaced Ga atoms located near the depth of the Rp. The ratio of this aligned
yield to the corresponding random yield was increased

from 1.2% to 12.3% after the implantation. This indicates

that although no amorphous layer was formed during the
implantation, a highly disordered region was produced in
the substrate. The aligned spectrum shows that this disordered region extends over 150 nm from the surface. From
those results, it is speculated that Si+ ions penetrate into
a depth of the substrate exceeding the theoretical range
of (Rp + DRp). Parikh et al. have previously reported similar results showing that defects induced in GaN by Si
implantation extend to a depth, which is much larger than
the theoretical range [11]. The RBS data also indicate that
a major part of implantation-induced defects is annihilated
during the RTA. However, the aligned yields were still
higher than those from a virgin substrate, indicating that
some amount of defects remained even after RTA at
1250
C for 30 s. From the aligned spectrum for the annealed sample, it is estimated that the residual defects are
distributed over a region from about 40 and 150 nm beneath the surface.
Fig. 2 shows typical SIMS proles for a 50 keV-implant
sample, which were obtained before and after RTA at
1250
C. The theoretical Si-concentration prole, predicted
from the SRIM calculation, is also shown in Fig. 2. Note
that the SIMS prole for the as-implanted sample exhibits
a long tail as compared to the theoretical prole. This result carries validity of the speculation mentioned above.
Further study should be carried out to draw a nal conclusion on this point. No signicant dierences in both shape
and concentration were detected between the SIMS proles
for as-implanted and annealed samples, indicating that the
10

21

DEPTH (nm)
200

100

50 keV
0
SILICON CONCENTRATION (/cm3)

BACKSCATTERING YIELD (counts)

10 4

random

10

aligned
A

10

10

20

SIMS

10 19

10 18

SRIM
virgin

300

350

400

450

CHANNEL NUMBER (ch)

Fig. 1. Aligned and random RBS spectra for a GaN sample implanted
with 50 keV Si+ ions to a dose of 2 1015 cm 2, obtained before (A) and
after RTA at 1250
C (B). The dashed line (virgin) is the aligned spectrum
from an un-implanted GaN sample.

50

100

150

200

DEPTH (nm)
Fig. 2. SIMS proles for a Si-implanted GaN sample implanted with
50 keV Si+ ions to a dose of 2 1015 cm 2, obtained before (solid line) and
after RTA at 1250
C (dashed line). The prole (SRIM) is a theoretical
one predicted from the SRIM calculation.

Y. Furuhashi et al. / Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 242 (2006) 633636

10

21

50 keV
100 keV

10 19

10 18

10

10

MOBILITY (cm2/ V sec)

CARRIER CONCENTRATION n (/cm3)

10 20

50

100

150

10
200

DEPTH X (nm)
Fig. 3. Carrier-concentration and mobility proles for n-type GaN layers
formed by implantations with 50- (s) and 100-keV Si+ ions (n) to a dose
of 2 1015 cm 2 and subsequent RTA at 1250
C. Dashed lines are
corresponding SIMS proles.

1000

MOBILITY (cm2/ Vs)

redistribution of Si atoms during the RTA was on the negligible small order. This means that the electrical prole can
be controlled by implantation conditions alone if implanted Si atoms are fully activated during annealing.
Carrier-concentration and mobility proles for two different samples are shown in Fig. 3, which were implanted
with 50- (type-A) and 100-keV Si+ ions (type-B) to a constant dose of 2 1015 cm 2 and then processed through
RTA at 1250
C. Corresponding SIMS proles are plotted
again in Fig. 3 with dashed lines. Carrier concentrations
obtained near the surface are close to Si concentrations,
showing that a very high electrical activation of the Si
atoms can be achieved after the RTA. We dene an active
layer on the electrical prole, which extends from the surface to the depth where the electrical prole exhibits a maximum concentration (NMAX). The value of the NMAX is
2.1 1020 and 1.5 1020 cm 3 and the width of the active
layer is approximately 30 and 66 nm for type-A and -B
samples, respectively. Beyond the active layer, measured
carrier concentrations are lower than Si concentrations,
as shown in Fig. 3. Combining these results with RBS data
shown in Fig. 1, it should be noted that the lattice defects,
remaining after the RTA in a deep part of the Si-concentration prole, act as carrier trapping and/or compensation
centers.

635

100

10
18
10

10

19

10

20

10

21

CARRIER CONCENTRATION n (/cm3)

Fig. 4. Carrier mobility versus carrier-concentration curve in n-type GaN
layers formed by Si implantation and subsequent RTA at 1250
C.
Mobilities shown with a symbol of X are those reported in [12] for
epitaxial n-type GaN layers doped with Si.

The total number of carriers for the n-type layer formed

in type-A sample was 1.0 1015 cm 2, which was obtained
by integrating the carrier-concentration prole shown in
Fig. 3. This means that the electrical activity, dened as a
ratio of the total number of carriers to the implant dose,
is 50%. The activity increases to around 65% for type-B
sample. As previously reported in [9], an activity of about
80% is obtained from the sample implanted with 150 keV
Si+ ions after RTA at 1250
C. Those results lead us to a
conclusion that the activity increases with increasing
implantation energy. This tendency can be explained by
the fact that the active layer is broadened with increasing
implantation energy in the energy regime examined.
Measured mobilities are plotted in Fig. 4 as a function
of carrier concentration. As carrier concentration is increased, there is the expected decrease in carrier mobility
due to impurity scattering. In addition, as shown in
Fig. 4, values of mobilities obtained from Si-implanted,
n-type layers are similar to those previously reported on
n-type epitaxial GaN layers doped with Si during growth
[12]. This implies that the eect of residual defects on suppressing carrier mobility is small at room temperature in a
carrier-concentration range of 1 1018 to 2 1020 cm 3.
Sheet resistivity and eective mobility of n-type layers
formed in type-A and -B samples were 69 and 45 X/h, 88
and 109 cm2/V s, respectively.
4. Conclusions
Highly doped n-type GaN layers can be formed by Si
implantation at room temperature and by subsequent
RTA at 1250
C using a SixNy lm as an encapsulant. Electrical prole measurements show that very high carrier
concentrations are obtained near the surface. This result

636

Y. Furuhashi et al. / Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 242 (2006) 633636

indicates the feasibility for applying the n+ layer to non-alloyed contacts in electronic and optical GaN devices. It is
also shown that implantation-induced defects cannot be
completely annihilated after RTA at 1250
C for 30 s and
they act as carrier trapping and/or compensation centers.
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