Electrical and luminescent properties and deep traps spectra of N-polar GaN films

Electrical and luminescent properties of N-polar undoped GaN films grown using low temperature GaN buffers on on-axis and miscut sapphire and on-axis AlN buffers are compared to the properties of Ga-polar films grown on low temperature GaN buffers. It is shown that the concentration of residual donors increases by about an order of magnitude for on-axis N-polar growth and by two orders of magnitude for off-axis growth compared to Ga-polar films. On-axis films for both Ga-polar and N-polar polarities show the presence of n(+) interfacial layers greatly influencing the apparent electron concentration and mobility deduced from capacitance-voltage C-V measurements. These interfacial layers are much less prominent in the miscut N-polar films. Growth on N-polar greatly increases the concentration of electron traps with activation energy of 0.9 eV possibly related to Ga-interstitials. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.