The characteristic and possibility of nickel as a gate electrode material instead of polysilicon have been investigated for 4H-SiC power MOSFETs. MOS capacitors were fabricated by oxidizing and subsequently depositing nickel or polysilicon on the thermal oxide layer. In order to investigate the effect of the rapid-thermal-annealing (RTA) on the oxide quality, the MOS capacitors with nickel or polysilicon gate were annealed at 950degreesC for 90sec. The interface trap densities of the oxide did not vary even after the RTA process, implying the quality of gate oxide was not affected by the RTA. The breakdown voltage of the gate oxides was 44-55V in the as-deposited samples, which was maintained after the high temperature annealing.