Effect of different electrolytes on porous GaN using photo-electrochemical etching

This article reports the properties and the behavior of GaN during the photoelectrochemical etching process using four different electrolytes. The measurements show that the porosity strongly depends on the electrolyte and highly affects the surface morphology of etched samples, which has been revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Peak intensity of the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the porous GaN samples was observed to be enhanced and strongly depend on the electrolytes. Among the samples, there is a little difference in the peak position indicating that the change of porosity has little influence on the PL peak shift, while it highly affecting the peak intensity. Raman spectra of porous GaN under four different solution exhibit phonon mode E2 (high), A1 (LO), A1 (TO) and E2 (low). There was a red shift in E2 (high) in all samples, indicating a relaxation of stress in the porous GaN surface with respect to the underlying single crystalline epitaxial GaN. Raman and PL intensities were high for samples etched in H2SO4:H2O2 and KOH followed by the samples etched in HF:HNO3 and in HF:C2H5OH.

► We report the properties and the behavior of GaN during the photoelectrochemical etching process using four different electrolytes. ► The measurements show that the porosity strongly depends on the electrolyte and highly affects the surface morphology of etched samples. ► Peak intensity of the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the porous GaN samples was observed to be enhanced and strongly depend on the electrolytes. ► There was a red shift in E2 (high) in all samples, indicating a relaxation of stress in the porous GaN surface with respect to the underlying single crystalline epitaxial GaN. ► H2SO4:H2O2 is the best solution for etching GaN.