Bull Mater Sci (2020) 43:234 Ó Indian Academy of Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-02181-9Sadhana(0123456789().,-volV)FT3](0123456789().,-volV) Gallium nitride nanocrystal formation in Si3N4 matrix by ion synthesis MANOJ KUMAR RAJBHAR1, SARAVANAN RAJAMANI1, S K SINGH1, SERGEY SURODIN2, DMITRY NIKOLICHEV2, RUSLAN KRYUKOV2, DMITRY KOROLEV2, ALYONA NIKOLSKAYA2, ALEXEY BELOV2, ALEXEY NEZHDANOV2, ALEXEY MIKHAYLOV2, DAVID TETELBAUM2 and MAHESH KUMAR1,* 1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Jodhpur 342011, India 2 Lobachevsky University, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia *Author for correspondence (
[email protected]) MS received 23 October 2019; accepted 16 March 2020 Abstract. Synthesis of nanoparticles in insulators attracts tremendous attention due to their unique electrical and optical properties. Here, the gallium (Ga) and gallium nitride (GaN) nanoclusters have been synthesized in the silicon nitride matrix by sequential ion implantation (gallium and nitrogen ions) followed by either furnace annealing (FA) or rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The presence of Ga and GaN nanoclusters has been confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Thereafter, the effect of RTA and FA on the conduction of charge carriers has been studied for the fabricated devices. It is found from the current–voltage measurements that the carrier transport is controlled by the space charge limited current conduction mechanism, and the observed values of parameter m (trap density and the distribution of localized state) for the FA and RTA devices are *2 and *4.1, respectively. This reveals that more defects are formed in the RTA device and that FA provides better performance than RTA from the viewpoint of opto- and nano-electronic applications.