10 MeV electrons irradiation effects in variously doped n-GaN

We studied 10 MeV electron irradiation effects in a group of n-GaN films grown by standard metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and by epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) techniques. The samples were either undoped or Si-doped, so that the shallow donor concentrations ranged from 10(14) cm(-3) to 3 x 10(18) cm(-3). It was found that electron irradiation led to the compensation of n-type conductivity and that the carrier removal rate substantially increased with an increase in the starting donor concentration. For the MOCVD samples, it was observed that the main compensating defect introduced by electrons was a 0.15 eV electron trap detected by admittance spectroscopy. Once the Fermi level crossed the level of these traps two other centers with activation energies of 0.2 and 1 eV were found to contribute to the compensation, so that after high doses, the Fermi level in moderately doped samples was pinned near E-c = 1 eV. In ELOG samples the 0.15 eV electron traps were not detected. Instead only the 0.2 and 1 eV traps were introduced by irradiation. The carrier removal rate in the ELOG n-GaN was found to be measurably lower than for MOCVD samples with a similar doping level. The results are compared to previously published data and possible models of compensation are discussed. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3596819]