Swelling or erosion on the surface of patterned GaN damaged by heavy ion implantation

Wurtzite undoped GaN epilayers (0 0 0 1) was implanted with 500 keV Au+ ions at room temperature under different doses, respectively. Ion implantation was performed through photoresist masks on GaN to produce alternating strips. The experimental results showed that the step height of swelling and decomposition in implanted GaN depended on ion dose and annealing temperature, i.e., damage level and its evolution. This damage evolution is contributed to implantation-induced defect production, and defect migration/accumulation occurred at different levels of displacement per atom. The results suggest that the swelling is due to the formation of porous structures in the amorphous region of implanted GaN. The decomposition of implanted area can be attributed to the disorder saturation and the diffusion of surface amorphous layer.