A study of thermal etching of GaN by atmospheric argon inductively coupled plasma

Abstract

GaN has a wide application in electronics and optoelectronics due to its excellent electrical properties. The thermal etching process is commonly used in the growth and subsequent process of GaN. As an easy-to-operate technique, atmospheric argon inductively coupled plasma (Ar-ICP) is first applied to the thermal etching of GaN in this study. Through the analysis of surface chemical composition and near-surface plasma spectroscopy, the etching principle and mechanism of the circular etching pit formation are revealed. The maximum material removal rate of Ar-ICP thermal etching can reach 18.72 μm/min. The optical properties of the sliced GaN after the Ar-ICP thermal etching and lapping process are evaluated by photoluminescence (PL), respectively. The PL intensity of the Ar-ICP thermally etched sample increases and the peak position of near-band emission shows a red shift compared to the lapped sample.