Impact of substrate off-angle on the m -plane GaN Schottky diodes

We investigated the effects of the substrate off-angle on the m -plane GaN Schottky diodes. GaN epitaxial layers were grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition on m -plane GaN substrates having an off-angle of 0.1, 1.1, 1.7, or 5.1° toward . The surface of the GaN epitaxial layers on the 0.1°-off substrate consisted of pyramidal hillocks and contained oxygen (>10 17 cm −3 ) and carbon (>10 16 cm −3 ) impurities. The residual carbon and oxygen impurities decreased to <10 16 cm −3 when the off-angle of the m -plane GaN substrate was increased. The leakage current of the 0.1°-off m -plane GaN Schottky diodes originated from the + c facet of the pyramidal hillocks. The leakage current was efficiently suppressed through the use of an off-angle that was observed to be greater than 1.1°. The off-angle of the m -plane GaN substrate is critical in obtaining high-performance Schottky diodes.