Changes in electrical and optical properties of p-AlGaN due to proton implantation

The effects of proton implantation with energy of 100keV on the electrical, optical and luminescent properties of p-AlGaN films are reported. The proton implantation leads to a decrease in the concentration of uncompensated shallow acceptors and, after high implantation doses, to formation of highly resistive compensated material. The dominant deep traps observed in implanted p-AlGaN films are hole traps with activation energy of 0.26, 0.4, and 0.9eV. Proton implantation is also shown to lead to a decrease in the intensity of near-band-edge microcathodoluminescence and, after high implantation doses, to the emergence of a yellow luminescence band.