Impact of polarization fields on electrochemical lift-off of GaN membranes

III-nitride membranes offer novel device designs in photonics, electronics and optomechanics. However, substrate removal often leads to a rough back surface, which degrades device performance. Here, we demonstrate GaN membranes with atomically smooth etched surfaces by electrochemical lift-off, through the implementation of a built-in polarization field in the sacrificial layer. This leads to a faster reduction in the sacrificial layer free carrier density during etching and thus an abrupter etch stop, reducing the root-mean-square roughness down to 0.4 nm over 5×5 µm2. These results open interesting perspectives on high-quality optical cavities and waveguides in the ultraviolet and visible.