Low-resistance nonalloyed ohmic contact to p-type GaN using strained InGaN contact layer

A strained InGaN contact layer inserted between Pd/Au and p-type GaN resulted in low ohmic contact resistance without any special treatments. The thickness and In mole fraction of the p-type InGaN varied from 2 nm to 15 nm and from 0.14 to 0.23, respectively. Strained InGaN layers are effective in reducing the contact resistance. A contact layer of 2 nm thick strained In0.19Ga0.81N showed the lowest specific contact resistance of 1.1x10(-6) Omega cm(2). The mechanism for the lower contact resistance is ascribed to enhanced tunneling transport due to large polarization-induced band bending at the surface as well as to the high hole concentration in p-type InGaN. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.