Electrical characteristics of Mg-doped p-GaN activated with Ni catalytic layers have been investigated by means of temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements. It has been revealed that the Ni layer on GaN enhances activation of the acceptor in the whole annealing temperature range. This enhancement is remarkable especially at temperatures below 500 degreesC and can be attributed to the catalytic effect for the hydrogen desorption. We have found that the donor concentrations in the samples activated with the Ni catalysts are also higher than those activated without Ni. This is probably due to the catalytic effect of Ni for the nitrogen desorption. In addition, it has been found that the ionization energies of the Mg acceptors in GaN activated with the Ni layer are decreased from 170 to 118 meV as the acceptor concentration increases. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.