Design and fabrication of antireflective GaN subwavelength grating structures using periodic silica sphere monolayer array patterning

Abstract

We designed and fabricated gallium nitride (GaN) subwavelength grating (SWG) structures on GaN/sapphire via patterning using the periodic silica sphere monolayer array as an etch mask and a subsequent dry etching for efficient antireflection coatings. Theoretical optimization of GaN SWG structures was performed in terms of their geometrical parameters by the rigorous coupled-wave analysis simulation using a theoretical structural model. The bullet-like parabola-shaped SWGs with a large height-to-diameter ratio (RH/D) yielded good broadband and wide-angle antireflective surface properties. Considering the RH/D, the GaN SWG structure using 320-nm silica spheres theoretically and experimentally exhibited the most efficient antireflection property because it provided a linearly graded effective refractive index profile with relatively long relaxation length. For various geometries of the fabricated GaN SWGs on GaN/sapphire, the calculated reflectance results showed a similar tendency with the experimental results.