Effects of thermal annealing on the indium tin oxide Schottky contacts of n-GaN

In this work indium tin oxide (ITO) films were prepared using electron beam evaporation to form Schottky contacts on n-type GaN films. The thermal stability of ITO on n-type GaN was also investigated by annealing the samples at various temperatures. In addition, current-voltage (I-V) measurements were taken to deduce the Schottky barrier heights. Owing to the large series resistance, the Norde method was used to plot the F(V)-V curves and the effective Schottky barrier heights were determined as well. The effective Schottky barrier heights were 0.68, 0.88, 0.94, and 0.95 eV for nonannealed, 400, 500, and 600 degrees C annealed samples, respectively. Results presented herein indicate that an increase of the barrier heights may be attributed to the formation of an interfacial layer at the ITO/GaN interface after annealing. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)00525-7].