Reactive ion etching of high optical quality GaN/sapphire photonic crystal slab using CH{sub 4}-H{sub 2} chemistry
- Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures (LPN), CNRS UPR 020, Route de Nozay, 91 460 Marcoussis (France)
Reactive ion etching (RIE) using a CH{sub 4}-H{sub 2} plasma is investigated for the fabrication of a GaN one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PhC) slab. The dominant control parameter for the etch rate and the sidewall profile is the dc bias. The influence of operating pressure, CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2} ratio, and total gas flow rate on the etching characteristics is also presented. An etch rate as high as 85 nm/min and an overcut angle as low as 5 degree sign obtained in this work are among the best values reported for conventional RIE technique. The CH{sub 4}-H{sub 2} process is used to etch 1D PhCs with a lattice parameter ranging from 700 to 350 nm and an air filling factor of 0.30 into a 600-nm-thick GaN/sapphire slab. Sharp peaks corresponding to the resonant modes of the nanopatterned structures are observed in the experimental reflection spectra for all the lattice periods. Furthermore, the good optical quality of the nanostructures is evidenced by a resonantly enhanced second-harmonic generation experiment around 400 nm. A second-harmonic generation enhancement factor as high as 10{sup 5} is obtained, compared with the unpatterned GaN reference slab. These results demonstrate that the CH{sub 4}-H{sub 2} conventional RIE technique is well adapted to the etching of GaN PhC for the fabrication of next generation photonic devices exploiting nonlinear processes.
- OSTI ID:
- 20982692
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 101, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2433770; (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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