Giant and reversible enhancement of the electrical resistance of GaAs1−xNx by hydrogen irradiation
Résumé
The electrical properties of untreated and hydrogen-irradiated GaAs1−xNx are investigated by conductive-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM). After hydrogen irradiation, the resistance R of GaAs1−xNx increases by more than three orders of magnitude while that of a N-free GaAs reference slightly decreases. Thermal annealing at 550 °C of H-irradiated GaAs1−xNx restores the pristine electrical properties of the as-grown sample thus demonstrating that this phenomenon is fully reversible. These effects are attributed to the nitrogen-hydrogen complexes that passivate N in GaAs1−xNx (thus restoring the energy gap of N-free GaAs) and, moreover, reduce the carrier scattering time by more than one order of magnitude. This opens up a route to the fabrication of planar conductive/resistive/conductive heterostructures with submicrometer spatial resolution, which is also reported here.