Properties of carbon-doped GaN using isobutane as a dopant

Abstract Carbon doping is an effective method to obtain semi-insulating GaN buffer, which is a necessity to prevent current leakage, in the high-electron-mobility-transistor device structure. The properties of intentionally carbon-doped GaN using isobutane gas as a dopant has been studied in detail. The carbon incorporation efficiency has been measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry. It is found that the carbon concentration could be directly controlled by the flow rate of isobutane precursor. The surface morphology of carbon-doped gallium nitride epitaxial layers has been investigated by optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The growth mode of GaN layers changes from step-flow to island growth, when the incorporated carbon concentration is higher than 1×10 19 cm -3 . In order to evaluate the structural quality of intentionally carbon-doped GaN, the full-width-at-half-maximum values are extracted from the rocking curves in six different reflections measured by high resolution X-ray diffraction. Raman spectroscopy is utilized to evaluate the physical properties of the carbon-doped GaN epitaxial layer.