Patent ID: 8647907

Claim:
A method for fabricating a nitride-based semiconductor light-emitting device, comprising the steps of: (a) preparing a substrate; (b) forming on the substrate a nitride-based semiconductor multilayer structure including a p-type semiconductor region, the p-type semiconductor region being made of an Al x In y Ga z N semiconductor (x+y+z=1, x≧0, y≧0, z≧0), and a principal surface of the p-type semiconductor region being an m-plane; (c) forming a metal layer which contains at least one of Mg and Zn on the principal surface of the p-type semiconductor region and performing a heat treatment; (d) removing the metal layer; and (e) forming a p-type electrode on the principal surface of the p-type semiconductor region, wherein the heat treatment of step (c) causes a N concentration in the p-type semiconductor region to be higher than a Ga concentration in the p-type semiconductor region, and the heat treatment of step (c) does not cause diffusion of Mg or Zn from the metal layer to the p-type semiconductor region.