Passivation and thermal reactivation of Mg acceptors in p-type GaAs

This paper reports on the efficient passivation of Mg-doped GaAs. The extent of the passivation was demonstrated to be highly temperature dependent, with the passivation being even more efficient than that of Zn-doped GaAs at temperatures below 140 degreesC. By performing reverse bias annealing measurements between 60 and 130 degreesC, we observed the reactivation of the Mg accepters within the high-field region of the Schottky diode. This reactivation was found to obey first-order kinetics, with a dissociation energy E-MgH = (0.90 +/- 0.03) eV and an attempt frequency nu (0) = (3 (+5)(-2)) X 10(8) s(-1). These results suggest that the Mg-H configuration is not bond centered, as also suggested by previous infrared absorption studies.