Nonaqueous organic electrolyte for photoelectrochemical etching of gallium nitride surface

Abstract Nonaqueous organic electrolyte was utilized to etch GaN via photo-electrochemical etching technique. From the point of electrochemical window, the organic electrolyte has wider electrochemical window than conventional aqueous etchants. SEM images show that the pore density is up to 1.2 × 10 7 per square centimeter. The difference of XPS spectra about survey, Ga 3d and N 1s between the non-etched and freshly etched GaN surface can be explained the formation of Ga(BF 4 ) 3 . The proposed dissolution mechanism can be broadly applied for explaining the etching process of nonaqueous etchants under the assist of electric field and strong light.