Nanophotonics of Hexagonal Lattice GaN Crystals Fabricated using an Electron Beam Nanolithography Process

A thin GaN semiconducting film that grows on sapphires due to metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was machined for nanophotonic applications. The thin film had multilayered superlattice structures, including nanoscaled InGaN layers. Eight alternating InGaN/GaN multilayers provided a blue light emission source. Nanoscaled holes, 150 nm in diameter, were patterned on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film using an electron beam lithography system. The PMMA film blocked the etching species. Air holes, 75 nm in diameter, which acted as blue light diffraction sources, were etched on the top GaN layer by an inductively coupled plasma etcher. Hexagonal lattice photonic crystals were fabricated with 230-, 460-, 690-, and 920-nm pitches. The 450-nm wavelength blue light provided the nanodiffraction destructive and constructive interferences phenomena, which were dependent on the pitch of the holes.