Electrodeless wet etching of GaN assisted with chopped ultraviolet light

Abstract

Electrodeless photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching of GaN was studied in a K2S2O8/KOH solution irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) light either continuously or periodically. The rate of recombination of electrons and holes at dislocation defects is greater than for crystalline GaN, resulting in a rough etched surface with hexagonal pyramids. The shorter the interval of UV irradiation, the smoother is the etched GaN surface; a chopped UV source thus serves to improve the morphology of the etched surface. A uniform and smooth GaN surface was obtained with a root-mean-square roughness 0.37 nm through electrodeless PEC etching in a solution (KOH 0.01 M, K2S2O8 0.05 M) with a chopper frequency 2500 Hz (i.e., duration of irradiation 0.2 ms).