Effect of photo-assisted RIE damage in GaN Schottky structures

The authors present a study on reactive ion etching- (RIE-) induced damage in GaN using simple Schottky structures and a BCl/sub 3//Cl/sub 2//N/sub 2/ gas mixture. They also perform a comparative investigation between RIE and photo-assisted RIE. Investigation of GaN surface composition using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggests that surface stoichiometry-related electrical and chemical surface damage is lower for PA-RIE when compared with RIE.