Low donor ionization energy in Si-implanted heteroepitaxial AlN

We obtained high n-type conductivity and low donor ionization energy for an AlN film grown on SiC by Si ion implantation. The room temperature conductivity reaches 0.26 omega- 1 cm-1, and the donor ionization energy is only 112 meV, which is the best result of Si-implanted heteroepitaxial AlN. The lattice damage caused by ion implantation can be almost completely repaired by annealing at 1330 degrees C for 2 h. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show few O impurity in the sample. The low donor ionization energy is attributed to avoiding the introduction of O impurities and the mitigation of self-compensating effect. These results show the great potential of Si-implanted heteroepitaxial AlN for device applications.

Automated summary

We achieved high n-type conductivity and low donor ionization energy for an AlN film grown on SiC by Si ion implantation. The conductivity at room temperature reached 0.26 omega-1 cm-1, and the donor ionization energy was only 112 meV, which is the best result for Si-implanted heteroepitaxial AlN. The lattice damage caused by ion implantation could be nearly completely repaired by annealing at 1330 degrees C for 2 h. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed minimal presence of O impurities in the sample. The low donor ionization energy was attributed to the avoidance of introducing O impurities and mitigating the self-compensating effect. These findings demonstrate the promising potential of Si-implanted heteroepitaxial AlN for device applications.