Annealing and incorporation of implanted dopants in wide band gap semiconductors

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Reiner Vianden
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2000 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5259350

The semiconducting group III Nitrides have recently been subject to an enormous scientific research activity. The main efforts are devoted to the development of processes capable of producing a material quality that is adequate for advanced opto-electronic devices in the short wavelength region. However, due to their large band gap, these materials are not only suitable for blue and ultraviolet LEDs and laser diodes but also for high temperature and high power semiconductor devices. For the local doping of such planar devices ion implantation is the most commonly used technique. Unfortunately, together with its advantages as a clean, controllable and reproducible technique comes its main problem which is the lattice damage caused by the ions. In order to achieve proper electrical activation of implanted dopants this damage has to be eliminated by an appropriate annealing procedure. The proposed project is aimed at a better understanding of the annealing processes and the defect - dopant interaction after implantation of the s-p metal In and various transition metals into group III - Nitride semiconductors. The PAC technique will be employed to this end since it is excellently suited to provide information about the lattice vicinity of an implanted impurity, being a PAC probe in our case. Thus, annealing procedures, which ensure a reliable removal of implantation induced defects and an optimal incorporation of the implanted impurity onto lattice sites, should stand at the end of this project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants