• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 2011

We investigate the crystallographic orientation and strain states of the Ni/Ag ohmic contacts on p-type GaN. The Ag film in the Ni/Ag contact was severely agglomerated during high temperature annealing in air ambient. As a results, after annealing for 24 h, the Ni/Ag contact shows non-linear I-V curve and low light reflectance of ~21% at 460 nm wavelength. High-resolution X-ray diffraction results show that the interplanar spacing of Ag (111) planes is almost same to that of bilk Ag after annealing for 24 hrs, indicating that the in-plane tensile strain in the Ag film was fully relaxed due to the Ag agglomeration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.18-20
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• 2010

The mechanism for suppression of Ag agglomeration in Ag-Mg alloy ohmic contact to p-GaN is investigated. The Ag-Mg alloy ohmic contact shows low contact resistivity of $6.3\;{\times}\;10^{-5}\;{\Omega}cm^2$, high reflectance of 85.5% at 460 nm wavelength after annealing at $400^{\circ}C$ and better thermal stability than Ag contact The formation of Ga vacancies increase the net hole concentration, lowering the contact resistivity. Moreover, the oxidation of Mg atoms in Ag film increase the work function of Ag-Mg alloy contact and prevents Ag oxidation. The inhibition of oxygen diffusion by Mg oxide suppresses the Ag agglomeration, leading to enhance light reflectance and thermal stability.