Electrical and optical properties of thick highly doped p‐type GaN layers grown by HVPE

In this paper we report 3-7 μm thick p-GaN growth by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on sapphire substrates. Mg impurity was used for doping. As-grown GaN layers had p-type conductivity with concentration NA-ND up to 3×1019 cm–3. Mg atom concentration was varied from 1017 to 1020 cm–3. Hydrogen concentration was about 10 times less than that for Mg, which may explain effective p-type doping for as-grown GaN layers. Micro-cathodoluminescence revealed a columnar-like structure of the GaN layers with a non-uniform distribution of material regions having dominant 362 nm or 430 nm luminescence. Use of these thick p-GaN layers to grow InGaN-based blue and green LEDs by the HVPE is demonstrated. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)