Laser-induced activation of Mg-doped GaN: quantitative characterization and analysis

We investigate the effectiveness of laser-induced treatment as compared to rapid-thermal annealing (RTA) for the activation of p-type dopant in Mg-doped GaN layers. The study is based on a wide set of analytical techniques, including resistivity measurements, atomic force microscopy, scanning emission microscopy (SEM), dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy (D-SIMS), time-of-flight (TOF) SIMS and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) in combination with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Samples are treated at different energy densities and in different atmospheres, to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. The analysis is carried out on GaN-on-Si samples, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment even in presence of high threading dislocation densities