Effect of Rapid Thermal Annealing on the Ti doped In₂O₃ Films Grown by Linear Facing Target Sputtering

The electrical, optical and structural properties of Ti doped $In_2O_3$ (TIO) ohmic contacts to p-type GaN were investigated using linear facing target sputtering (LFTS) system. Sheet resistance and resistivity of TIO films are decreased with increasing rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperature. Although the $400^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$ annealed samples showed rectifying behavior, the $600^{\circ}C$ and $700^{\circ}C$ annealed samples showed linear I-V characteristics indicative of the formation of an ohmic contact between TIO and p-GaN. The annealing of the contact at $700^{\circ}C$ resulted in the lowest specific contact resistivity of $9.5{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm^2$. Based on XPS depth profiling and synchrotron X-ray scattering analysis, we suggested a possible mechanism to explain the annealing dependence of the properties of TIO layer on rapid thermal annealing temperature.