Mg doping of GaN layers grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

GaN:Mg layers grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy at 650 °C are investigated. Secondary-ion-mass-spectroscopy measurements reveal uniform Mg doping profiles with very sharp boundaries. The amount of incorporated Mg atoms changes approximately linearly with incident Mg flux. Hall measurements on p-type GaN:Mg layers show that about 1%–2% of all Mg atoms are ionized at room temperature. The hole mobility depends strongly on the hole concentration, varying from μp=24 cm2/V s for p=1.8×1017 cm−3 to μp=7.5 cm2/V s for p=1.4×1018 cm−3. GaN p–n diodes with molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown p regions are analyzed using current–voltage measurements.