Contact mechanisms and design principles for alloyed ohmic contacts to n-GaN

Contact mechanisms and design principles of alloyed ohmic contacts to n-GaN are investigated. For the investigation, both tunnel contacts and thermionic contacts are considered. While the tunnel contacts include the Ti/Al/Ti/Au, Ti/Al/Ni/Au, Ti/Al/Pd/Au, (Ta,Ti)/Ni/Au, Ti/Al/Mo/Au, and Ti/Au/Pd/Au contacts, the thermionic contacts include the Ni/Au contacts. The proposed design principles correctly dictate the characteristics of all these contacts. At present, tunneling is believed to be the primary mechanism for low resistivity of the tunnel contacts. The present study demonstrates that both tunneling and thermionic emission are equally important for the low resistivity of these contacts. Band-gap narrowing and/or image force lowering due to heavy doping also contribute to the resistivity reduction of these contacts. An exciting feature of the present study is the observation of a very low work function intermetallic alloy formed during annealing of an appropriate combination of large work function metals. If the annealing conditions are optimized, the contacts become very robust, thermally stable, and lowly resistive with thermionic emission as the primary mechanism for electron transport. The observation is very promising and has potential to open up avenues for different types of thermionic contacts. The fundamental physics underlying the design principles are discussed. These principles are general enough to be applicable to other III–V nitrides, at the least.