Preferential crystal orientation etching of GaN nanopillars in Cl2 plasma

The ability to fabricate organized, dense arrays of GaN nanostructures with high aspect ratios is of great interest for improving light extraction and absorption in optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and Lasers. However, achieving this requires a patterning method that allows for the fabrication of GaN nanostructures with a controlled final shape and specific crystallographic facets. Our study shows that a top-down approach combining lithography and Cl2-based plasma etching processes offers the possibility of anisotropically transferring a pattern while revealing smooth nonpolar facets. Although GaN etching in Cl2 is driven by ion-enhanced chemical etching mechanisms, the chemical component is very strong, and Cl2 plasma leads to preferential crystallographic orientation etching of GaN. The mechanisms that drive facet formation are very similar to those involved in wet KOH etching. The etching ability of a specific crystallographic plane by chlorine atoms depends on the planar density and the N dangling bonds present on the plane. Predictably, GaN crystallographic planes will be etched in Cl2 plasmas as follows: a-type semipolar > m-type semipolar planes > a nonpolar plane > m polar planes > c polar planes. Crystallographic etching usually reveals the slowest etching planes, meaning the m-planes. However, consistently with the wet mechanisms, our study shows that the final revealed plane in Cl2 plasma will strongly depend on the surface curvature: in concave surfaces, fast-etch facets persist, while in convex surfaces, slow-etch facets persist. Consequently, Cl2 plasma etching of pillars (convex surfaces) will result in a-type facets, while etching of holes (concave surfaces) result in m-type facets.