We have developed the deposition and studied the electrical characteristics and thermal reliability of Ru-based contacts on n- type GaN as well as on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure. Amorphous, conducting and transparent RuSiO4 contacts with their extremely low reverse currents and thermal stability up to 900°C, show great potential for use as Schottky contacts to n-type GaN and gate electrodes for AlGaN/GaN HEMT in high temperature, high power applications as well as in UV detectors.

We report on the fabrication of p-ZnO films by thermal oxidation of Zn3N2 deposited by reactive rf sputtering. With additional chromium doping we achieved p-type conductivity with the hole concentration ∼5×1017cm−3 and the mobility of 23.6 cm2/Vs at room temperature. We developed a method of surface passivation of p-ZnO that maintains its p-type conductivity over time-scale of months.

We have studied thermal stability of Nb and NbN contacts to GaAs and GaN by x-ray diffraction and SIMS, and demonstrated their excellent behaviour under high temperature annealing. GaAs/Nb and GaAs/NbN contacts are stable up to 800°C and 900°C, respectively while GaN/NbN and GaN/Nb/NbN remain stable up to 1000°C.