Formation of vanadium-based ohmic contacts to n-GaN

Abstract

We investigate vanadium (V)-based ohmic contacts on n-GaN (Nd=2.0×1018 cm−3) as a function of annealing temperature. It is shown that the V (60 nm) contacts become ohmic with specific contact resistances of 10−3–10−4 Ω cm2 upon annealing at 650 and 850 °C. The V (20 nm)/Ti (60 nm)/Au (20 nm) contacts produce very low specific contact resistances of 2.2×10−5 and 4.0×10−6 Ω cm2 when annealed at 650 and 850 °C, respectively. A comparison shows that the use of the overlayers (Ti/Au) is very effective in improving ohmic property. Based on Auger electron spectroscopy and glancing-angle x-ray diffraction results, possible explanations for the annealing temperature dependence of the ohmic behavior of the V-based contacts are described and discussed.