Formation of high-quality Ni/Ag contacts on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN platform

Zhiwei Sun; Weisheng Wang; Yuanlei Zhang; Maoqing Ling; Tianyu Zhao; Yujin Wu; Jingang Li; Junwen Wang; Jie Zhang; Yinchao Zhao; Harm van Zalinge; Wen Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594

Formation of high-quality Ni/Ag contacts on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN platform

Zhiwei Sun, Weisheng Wang, Yuanlei Zhang, Maoqing Ling, Tianyu Zhao, Yujin Wu, Jingang Li, Junwen Wang, Jie Zhang, Yinchao Zhao, Harm van Zalinge, Wen Liu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This study systematically investigated Ni/Ag contacts for moderately doped p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, including contact optimization, the conduction formation mechanism, and the carrier transport model. High-quality Ni/Ag (1/120 nm) contacts were achieved with a low contact resistance (11.24 Ω·mm at ± 5 V), a low contact resistivity (2.64 × 10⁻⁵ Ω·cm²) and a low roughness surface topography (14.4 nm). Furthermore, based on the thermionic field emission (TFE) model for Ni/Ag (1/120 nm), the Schottky barrier height (SBH) was extracted as 1.04 eV, the interfacial carrier concentration was 1.8 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³ and the depletion width was 2.46 nm. The thin barrier width promoted field emission, which led to a low contact resistance.

Original language	English
Article number	182594
Journal	Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Volume	1038
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594
Publication status	Published - 20 Aug 2025

Keywords

Ohmic contact
P-channel heterostructure field-effect transistors (p-HFETs)
p-gallium nitride (p-GaN)
Schottky barrier height (SBH)
Thermionic field emission (TFE)

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10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594

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@article{b8f0745905d44719912c80b259e4e21b,

title = "Formation of high-quality Ni/Ag contacts on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN platform",

abstract = "This study systematically investigated Ni/Ag contacts for moderately doped p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, including contact optimization, the conduction formation mechanism, and the carrier transport model. High-quality Ni/Ag (1/120 nm) contacts were achieved with a low contact resistance (11.24 Ω·mm at ± 5 V), a low contact resistivity (2.64 × 10−5 Ω·cm2) and a low roughness surface topography (14.4 nm). Furthermore, based on the thermionic field emission (TFE) model for Ni/Ag (1/120 nm), the Schottky barrier height (SBH) was extracted as 1.04 eV, the interfacial carrier concentration was 1.8 × 1020 cm−3 and the depletion width was 2.46 nm. The thin barrier width promoted field emission, which led to a low contact resistance.",

keywords = "Ohmic contact, P-channel heterostructure field-effect transistors (p-HFETs), p-gallium nitride (p-GaN), Schottky barrier height (SBH), Thermionic field emission (TFE)",

author = "Zhiwei Sun and Weisheng Wang and Yuanlei Zhang and Maoqing Ling and Tianyu Zhao and Yujin Wu and Jingang Li and Junwen Wang and Jie Zhang and Yinchao Zhao and \{van Zalinge\}, Harm and Wen Liu",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

day = "20",

doi = "10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594",

language = "English",

volume = "1038",

journal = "Journal of Alloys and Compounds",

issn = "0925-8388",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Formation of high-quality Ni/Ag contacts on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN platform

AU - Sun, Zhiwei

AU - Wang, Weisheng

AU - Zhang, Yuanlei

AU - Ling, Maoqing

AU - Zhao, Tianyu

AU - Wu, Yujin

AU - Li, Jingang

AU - Wang, Junwen

AU - Zhang, Jie

AU - Zhao, Yinchao

AU - van Zalinge, Harm

AU - Liu, Wen

PY - 2025/8/20

Y1 - 2025/8/20

N2 - This study systematically investigated Ni/Ag contacts for moderately doped p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, including contact optimization, the conduction formation mechanism, and the carrier transport model. High-quality Ni/Ag (1/120 nm) contacts were achieved with a low contact resistance (11.24 Ω·mm at ± 5 V), a low contact resistivity (2.64 × 10−5 Ω·cm2) and a low roughness surface topography (14.4 nm). Furthermore, based on the thermionic field emission (TFE) model for Ni/Ag (1/120 nm), the Schottky barrier height (SBH) was extracted as 1.04 eV, the interfacial carrier concentration was 1.8 × 1020 cm−3 and the depletion width was 2.46 nm. The thin barrier width promoted field emission, which led to a low contact resistance.

AB - This study systematically investigated Ni/Ag contacts for moderately doped p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, including contact optimization, the conduction formation mechanism, and the carrier transport model. High-quality Ni/Ag (1/120 nm) contacts were achieved with a low contact resistance (11.24 Ω·mm at ± 5 V), a low contact resistivity (2.64 × 10−5 Ω·cm2) and a low roughness surface topography (14.4 nm). Furthermore, based on the thermionic field emission (TFE) model for Ni/Ag (1/120 nm), the Schottky barrier height (SBH) was extracted as 1.04 eV, the interfacial carrier concentration was 1.8 × 1020 cm−3 and the depletion width was 2.46 nm. The thin barrier width promoted field emission, which led to a low contact resistance.

KW - Ohmic contact

KW - P-channel heterostructure field-effect transistors (p-HFETs)

KW - p-gallium nitride (p-GaN)

KW - Schottky barrier height (SBH)

KW - Thermionic field emission (TFE)

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105012276215

U2 - 10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594

DO - 10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.182594

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105012276215

SN - 0925-8388

VL - 1038

JO - Journal of Alloys and Compounds

JF - Journal of Alloys and Compounds

M1 - 182594

ER -

Formation of high-quality Ni/Ag contacts on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN platform

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Keywords

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