Changing oblique angles of pyramid facets fabricated by wet etching of N polar GaN

Abstract

Wet etching was performed on N polar GaN, which was fabricated by laser lift-off from a sapphire substrate. Dodecagonal pyramids appeared on the N-polar GaN surface after immersion into hot H₃PO₄ solution even if it had been etched previously with hot KOH solution. According to the symmetry of the space group of C_6v⁴-P₆mc, the oblique angle and crystallographic plane indices of the pyramid facets were obtained. It was observed that the oblique angles of the etched facets decreased from the tip to the base of the pyramids. The etching rate was fast when the etching temperature was above 130 °C, and the oblique angle at the base was reduced. The enhancement of light output with increasing etching temperature has been confirmed. The polarization charges on the different facets were assigned to a kinetics-limited process by the special behavior of the hot H₃PO₄ etching.