Surface Conversion Effects in Plasma-Damaged p-GaN

The near-surface (400-500Å) of p-GaN exposed to high density plasmas is found to become more compensated through the introduction of shallow donors. At high ion fluxes or ion energies there can be type-conversion of this surface region. Two different methods for removal of the damaged surface were investigated; wet etching in KOH, which produced self-limiting etch depths or thermal annealing under N 2 which largely restored the initial electrical properties.