OPTICAL ACTIVATION OF ION-IMPLANTED AND ANNEALED GAN

Ion implantation and the associated annealing was investigated using l uminescence and absorption measurements to demonstrate the efficacy of implantation for introducing various classes of dopants into GaN. A w ide range of implantation and annealing studies were performed with se veral dopant species (Zn, Nd, Er, Ar). Room temperature ion implantati on was performed on MOCVD grown GaN samples at energies between 200 an d 400 keV with doses ranging from 1 x 10(13) to 1 x 10(15) cm(-2). Con ventional furnace annealing in flowing NH3 or N-2 resulted in good rec overy of implantation damage at an annealing temperature of 1000 degre es C for 90 min. However, surface degradation became evident for annea ling in an NH3 environment at temperatures above 1000 degrees C. Low t emperature photoluminescence showed that the optical activation of the Zn, and the rare earth elements, Er and Nd, was optimum in the NH3 an nealing environment at 1000 degrees C.