A contact-free diagnostic technique for examining position of the impurity energy level of p-type dopants in nitride semiconductors was proposed based on photoluminescence thermal quenching. The Mg ionization energy was extracted by the phenomenological rate-equation model we developed. The diagnostic technique and analysis model reported here are priorities for the design of highly effective p-doping of nitrides and could also be used to explain the abnormal and seldom analyzed low characteristic temperature T0 (about 100 K) of thermal quenching in p-type nitrides systems. An In-Mg co-doped GaN system is given as an example to prove the validity of our methods. Furthermore, a hole concentration as high as 1.94 × 10(18) cm(-3) was achieved through In-Mg co-doping, which is nearly one order of magnitude higher than typically obtained in our lab.