## 1 Introduction  
In the last two decades, the III-Nitride semiconductor materials have become more apparent due to their applications in optoelectronics devices, which can be tuned to different wavelengths, ranging from green to ultraviolet emission. GaN belongs to the III-Nitride group; this is a material with great potential for the present and future of the electronics industry, due to its optical, structural, and electrical properties. Gallium nitride has applications in solar cells, microwave devices, LED screens, and high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) [1, 2, 3]. However, the principal application of GaN is the conservation of electrical energy through the replacement of incandescent light bulbs with LED technology bulbs. Recently, the GaN has also been used in applications for nuclear radiation detectors,biosensors, and nuclear batteries with high energy density/long lifetime, as well as small-scaled fabrication of pacemakers. In this way, GaN is helping to save lives [4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9]. The GaN crystallizes in the hexagonal structure, with a band gap energy of Eg = 3.4 eV. However, it should be considered that GaN wafers are very expensive, due to the methods used for the production of ingots (ammonothermal growth, and hydride vapor phase epitaxy). Thus, the GaN can be obtained via films grown on non-native substrates such as Si, SiC, and GaAs. The growth methods mostly used to obtain GaN films are metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). On the other hand, obtaining this p-type GaN has been very important in device development. However, MOCVD and MBE need additional compounds to dope the GaN with Mg or Zn, which are the most common dopant elements to obtain the p-type GaN. MOCVD requires metalorganic compounds such as biscyclopentadienylmagnesium (Cp\({}_{2}\)Mg) or diethylzinc ((C\({}_{2}\)H\({}_{5}\))\({}_{2}\)Zn), followed by the activation technique of atoms \"low-energy electron beam irradiation (LEEBI)\", which is a process applied at the laboratory level with acceleration voltages of the incident electrons at 10 kV. Therefore, this is not an adequate process for standard applications [10; 11; 12]. Molecular-beam epitaxy generally uses a solid source of Mg or Zn atoms during the growth process of the material [13; 14; 15]. Recently, radio-frequency magnetron sputtering has been used as another option for obtaining GaN films, which could be applied as buffer layers to reduce the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients between substrate and GaN. However, this technique might require the availability of GaN powders with high purity and a single-phase for use as a raw material in the targets' production. Additionally, GaN powders can be doped with Mg or Zn during the synthesis process [16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21]. This work presents the effects of doping with Mg or Zn in the structural, and the luminescent properties of GaN films, which were grown via radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, using laboratory-prepared targets with Mg-doped or Zn-doped GaN powders. These powders were reported by our research team in previous works [16; 17; 19]. The obtained films might be applied as buffer layers in III-Nitride biosensors, pacemakers, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). It is also important to mention that GaN films doped with Mg or Zn were obtained for the first time using targets prepared with this process. GaN films doped with Mg or Zn showed good adherence to the non-native substrate (silicon), whose structural characteristics were obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Surface morphology was obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while its elemental analysis was obtained via energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Mg or Zn incorporation in the GaN films was demonstrated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The film thickness was found using profilometry, and its resistivity via the four-point probe measurement method.