Effect of carrier gas and doping profile on the surface morphology of MOVPE grown heavily doped GaN:Mg layers

Abstract

Magnesium is the only acceptor impurity practically used in MOCVD of GaN. High activation energy requires high impurity concentration, which results in epilayer morphology degradation. In the presented paper an influence of growth regimes, including choice of carrier gas, on GaN:Mg morphology is presented. It is demonstrated that surface morphology depends on an average magnesium concentration and strongly improves with using nitrogen as carrier gas.