Hexagonal Enhanced Porous GaN with Delayed Integrated Pulse Electrochemical (iPEC) Etching

This present study investigates the effect of time delay (Td) on the formation of porous GaN (P-GaN) using integrated pulse electrochemical (iPEC) etching. Porous GaN (P-GaN) was formed by etching an N-type GaN wafer with a 4% KOH electrolyte for 60 minutes under an ultraviolet (UV) lamp at a current density of 80 mA/cm2. A Td of 120 minutes was applied before electrochemically etching the P-GaN sample. The top view image of the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) revealed a significant difference when a Td was applied. A dense and uniform hexagonal P-GaN was obtained from the Td iPEC sample, while the non-Td sample exhibited a multi-layered hexagonal porous structure with unfinished pore-etched areas. Higher porosity and deeper pores were observed in the Td sample. Intense high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) peak intensity was observed in the Td iPEC sample with a lower full width half maximum (FWHM), indicating that the sample had better crystallinity. The Raman spectra of the sample anodized with a Td exhibited higher Raman peak intensity and a slight shift to a higher frequency concerning as-grown GaN, indicating better crystallinity and a tensile stress relaxation of 0.24 GPa. Post etching, a blue shift of the photoluminescence (PL) peak, from 364 nm (as-grown GaN) to 363 nm (P-GaN), was observed, and a small PL peak started to form around 385 nm compared to the as-grown GaN due to the relaxation of the tensile stress, which modified the bandgap. The PL peak intensity of the Td sample was higher than the non-Td sample, indicating that the porosity and uniformity allowed more light interaction with the material, resulting in more efficient photon absorption and emission. The results indicated that potentially efficient optoelectronics devices can be fabricated on a P-GaN using a combination of electroless and electrochemical etching of the GaN epitaxial layer.