Defect formation and annealing behaviors of fluorine-implanted GaN layers revealed by positron annihilation spectroscopy

Defect formation and annealing behaviors of fluorine-implanted, unintentionally doped GaN layers were studied by positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). Single Ga vacancies (VGa) were identified as the main vacancy-type defects detected by PAS after fluorine implantation at 180 keV with a dose of 1×1015 cm−2. Implantation-induced VGa tend to aggregate and form vacancy clusters after postimplantation annealing in N2 ambient at 600 °C. Fluorine ions tend to form F-vacancy complexes quickly after thermal annealing, which is consistent with the proposed diffusion model that predicts the behaviors of fluorine in GaN.