Formation of GaN-Porous Structures Using Photo-Assisted Electrochemical Process in Back-Side Illumination Mode

Abstract

We investigated the structural features of gallium-nitride-porous structures formed using the photo-assisted electrochemical process in the back-side illumination (BSI) mode. The pore diameter and depth were strongly affected by the direction of illumination, where higher controllability was achieved compared with front-side illumination. The spectroscopic measurements revealed that illumination with photon energy below the bulk bandgap plays an important role in pore formation. We propose a formation model by considering the Franz-Keldysh effect that can consistently explain the obtained experimental data in which anodic etching occurs only at the pore tips under the high electric field induced in the depletion region.