The role of extended and point defects, and key impurities such as C, O, and H, on the electrical and optical properties of GaN is reviewed. Recent progress in the development of high reliability contacts, thermal processing, dry and wet etching techniques, implantation doping and isolation, and gate insulator technology is detailed. Finally, the performance of GaN-based electronic and photonic devices such as field effect transistors, UV detectors, laser diodes, and light-emitting diodes is covered, along with the influence of process-induced or grown-in defects and impurities on the device physics.

Gan : processing, defects, and devices

The fundamental surface science of wurtzite gallium nitride

HREELS of H/GaN(0001): evidence for Ga termination

A method of low-damage, anisotropic etching of substrates including mounting the substrate upon the anode in a DC plasma reactor and subjecting the substrate to a plasma of low-energy electrons and a species reactive with the substrate An apparatus for conducting low-damage, anisotropic etching including a DC plasma reactor, a permeable wall hollow cold cathode, an anode, and means for mounting the substrate upon the anode

Method and apparatus for low energy electron enhanced etching of substrates

Fabrication of microchannels in single-crystal GaN by wet-chemical-assisted femtosecond-laser ablation

The authors have demonstrated low energy electron-enhanced etching (LE4) of 1.0 {micro}m thick films of GaN on (100) Si substrates with good anisotropy. The etch rate increased from 70 to 525 {angstrom}/min as the sample temperature increased from 50 to 250 C. Auger spectra indicated that surface stoichiometry was essentially unchanged during LE4 at process temperatures below 100 C; samples etched at higher temperatures showed excess gallium at the surface.

H. P. Gillis

Papers

Low energy electron-enhanced etching of GaN/Si in hydrogen direct current plasma