Initial oxidation of gallium nitride (GaN) (0001) epilayers and subsequent growth of thermal oxides in dry oxygen ambient were investigated by means of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and x-ray diffraction measurements. It was found that initial oxide formation tends to saturate at temperatures below 800 °C, whereas the selective growth of small oxide grains proceeds at dislocations in the epilayers, followed by noticeable grain growth, leading to a rough surface morphology at higher oxidation temperatures. This indicates that oxide growth and its morphology are crucially dependent on the defect density in the GaN epilayers. Structural characterizations also reveal that polycrystalline α- and β-phase Ga2O3 grains in an epitaxial relation with the GaN substrate are formed from the initial stage of the oxide growth. We propose a comprehensive model for GaN oxidation mediated by nitrogen removal and mass transport and discuss the model on the basis of experimental findings.

The superior physical and electrical properties of aluminum oxynitride (AlON) gate dielectrics on AlGaN/GaN substrates in terms of thermal stability, reliability, and interface quality were demonstrated by direct AlON deposition and subsequent annealing. Nitrogen incorporation into alumina was proven to be beneficial both for suppressing intermixing at the insulator/AlGaN interface and reducing the number of electrical defects in Al2O3 films. Consequently, we achieved high-quality AlON/AlGaN/GaN metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors with improved stability against charge injection and a reduced interface state density as low as 1.2 × 1011 cm−2 eV−1. The impact of nitrogen incorporation into the insulator will be discussed on the basis of experimental findings.

The impact of thin Ga-oxide (GaOx) interlayers on the electrical properties of GaN-based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices was systematically investigated. Thin thermal oxides formed at around 900 °C were found to be beneficial for improving the electrical properties of insulator/GaN interfaces, despite the fact that thermal oxidation of GaN surfaces at high temperatures proceeds by means of grain growth. Consequently, well-behaved capacitance-voltage characteristics of SiO2/GaOx/n-GaN stacked MOS capacitors with an interface state density (Dit) as low as 1.7 × 1011 cm−2 eV−1 were demonstrated. Moreover, the Dit value was further reduced for the SiO2/GaOx/GaN capacitor with a 2-nm-thick sputter-deposited GaOx interlayer. These results clearly indicate the intrinsically superior nature of the oxide/GaN interfaces and provide plausible guiding principles for fabricating high-performance GaN-MOS devices with thin GaOx interlayers.

Interface reactions between Ti-based electrodes and n-type GaN epilayers were investigated by synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Metallic Ga and thin TiN alloys were formed at the interface by subsequently depositing Al capping layers on ultrathin Ti layers even at room temperature. By comparing results from stacked Ti/Al and single Ti electrodes, the essential role of Al capping layers serving as an oxygen-scavenging element to produce reactive Ti underlayers was demonstrated. Further growth of the metallic interlayer during annealing was observed. A strategy for achieving low-resistance ohmic contacts to n-GaN with low-thermal-budget processing is discussed.