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Photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching technique has been proven to be an effective method to etch GaN. Despite its success, investigations on etching-induced damage are still scare. In this work, the damage induced by PEC etching of GaN in KOH electrolyte was studied. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was used to explore the origin of etching-induced damaged layer. From the variable temperature PL measurements, the origin of etching-induced damage was attributed to be the defect complex of VGa-ON (gallium vacancy bonds to oxygeon on nitrogen antisite). With determination of the defect origin, the electronic transition in the etch damage-related yellow luminescence (YL) band was suggested to be deep donor-like state to shallow-acceptor transition. In addition, a post-treatment method with boiled KOH chemical etching was developed to remove the thin damaged layer. In this method, crystallographic etching characteristics of boiled KOH was observed to assist in the formation of smooth sidewall facets. As revealed by the reduction of yellow luminescence, we propose this novel technique as a near damage-free etching method.

In ionizing-radiation environments, oxide charge buildup in the buried oxide of SIMOX SOI material causes an increase in the back-channel leakage current, resulting in an instability in electronic circuits formed on SIMOX wafers. We report the measured distributions of radiation-induced oxide charge density in buried oxides formed by oxygen implantation. These are obtained by etch-back experiments including C-V measurements using a mercury probe and ellipsometer measurements. The results show a region of higher charge density about 1500A from the top interface with a lower density region within a few hundred angstroms of the top interface. The results also show that the oxide charge density decreases with annealing temperature. Some unusual optical properties of SIMOX oxide observed in ellipsometer measurements are discussed comparatively with thermal oxide.