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We evaluated Mg-diffusion into GaN from GaN/Mg mixture. The diffusion depth of Mg increased with diffusion temperature from 1100 °C to 1300 °C, whereas the Mg concentration remained constant at 2–3 × 1018 cm−3independent of temperature. The estimated activation energy for Mg diffusion was 2.8 eV, from which the substitutional diffusion mechanism was predicted. Mg-diffused GaN samples showed p-type conductivity with a maximum hole mobility of 27.7 cm2V−1s−1, suggesting that substitutional diffusion contributes to Mg activation. This diffusion technique can be used to easily form p-type GaN and has potential as a p-type selective doping technique.

We evaluated the beam current dependence of defect formation during Mg ion implantation into GaN at a high temperature of 1100 °C with two beam currents. Photoluminescence spectra suggest that low-beam-current implantation reduced the vacancy concentration and activated Mg to a greater extent. Moreover, scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that low-beam-current implantation reduced the density of Mg segregation defects with inactive Mg and increased the density of intrinsic dislocation loops, suggesting decreases in the densities of Ga and N vacancies. The formation of these defects depended on beam current, which is an important parameter for defect suppression.

In this study, we investigated the relationship of light output power with the optical thickness of the p-layers in AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with a transparent high-Al-composition p-AlGaN clad layer, a thin p-GaN contact layer, and a reflective p-type electrode. By adjusting the thickness of the transparent high-Al-composition p-AlGaN clad layer, we observed a marked change in light output power. A maximum light output power of 385 mW at 1500 mA, a maximum external quantum efficiency of 15.7% at 10 mA, and a maximum wall-plug efficiency of 15.3% at 10 mA were obtained at an emission wavelength of 275 nm.

The interface properties of GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures with a gate electrode metal deposited by electron beam (EB) or resistive heating evaporation were investigated. Also, the impact of the interface properties on the channel mobility in GaN MIS field-effect transistors was investigated. It was confirmed that interface charges including both interface states and positive fixed charges were introduced to an Al2O3/GaN interface by the formation of a gate electrode by EB evaporation. Consequently, the introduced interface charges degraded the electron mobility in the MIS channel.

We report the first experimental demonstration of microwave oscillation in GaN impact ionization avalanche time transit (IMPATT) diodes at the X-band. The device used in this study is a single drift diode with a p+-n simple abrupt junction and vertical mesa termination. The reverse I-Vcharacteristic of the diode shows low leakage current, clear avalanche breakdown, and high avalanche capability, as required for IMPATT operation. Microwave testing is performed in an X-band waveguide circuit with a reduced-height waveguide resonant cavity. Oscillations are observed at 9.52 GHz at a power of ?56 mW.

Photo-electrochemical (PEC) etching is a promising technique for fabricating GaN microelectromechanical systems devices. In this study, we demonstrate the fabrication of GaN cantilevers by the bandgap-selective PEC etching of an InGaN superlattice sacrificial layer. By using an InGaN superlattice as a sacrifice layer, we found the PEC etching rate became higher than using a normal InGaN layer. As a result, the InGaN superlattice was completely etched and we fabricated GaN-based cantilevers whose resonance characteristics were measured. The Young's modulus of GaN was determined from the resonance characteristics of GaN cantilevers to be the same as the highest value reported previously.

Current-voltage-temperature characteristics (0 °C to 150 °C) of SBDs on highly compensated 15 ?m and 30 ?m n-type GaN drift layer were measured for voltages up to ?300 V and up to ?800 V, respectively. When the temperature is between 75 °C and 100 °C, both SBDs exhibited a similar change in conduction mechanism from thermionic field emission (TFE) to thermionic emission (TE) due to the activation of N-vacancies (VN) (Ea= ?1.67 ± 0.02 eV). However, at high voltages when the temperature is >100 °C, the conduction mechanism changes from TE to TFE due to the de-trapping of electrons from activated carbon-traps (Ea= +0.69 eV) in the grown drift layers.

A simple structure with high breakdown voltage and a low leakage current of a vertical GaN p-n diode on a GaN free-standing substrate is demonstrated. We describe a vertical p-n diode with a simple edge termination that has a drift layer etched deeply and vertically. A device simulation revealed that the electric field was more relaxed at the device edge and applied uniformly in the entire device with increasing etching depth. We fabricated the simulated structure and succeeded in reducing the leakage current and improving the breakdown voltage. With this structure, a stable avalanche breakdown can be observed.

A femtosecond (fs)-laser-modified region inside single-crystal silicon carbide was studied by micro-Raman spectroscopy. Higher and lower peak energy shifts of the transverse optical (TO) phonon mode, which correspond to compressive and tensile stresses, were observed. Mappings of peak energies and spectral widths of the TO phonon mode showed a clear correspondence with the distributions of strained layers observed by transmission electron microscopy. The maximum compressive and tensile stresses were estimated to be 1.4 and 0.4 GPa, respectively. This result indicates that the periodic strained layers contain many nano-voids which are formed by nano-explosions induced by fs laser irradiation.