Gallium antimonide texturing for enhanced light extraction from infrared optoelectronics devices

The use of gallium antimonide (GaSb) is increasing, especially for optoelectronic devices in the infrared wavelengths. It has been demonstrated in gallium nitride (GaN) devices operating at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, that surface textures increase the overall device efficiency. In this work, we fabricated eight different surface textures in GaSb to be used in enhancing efficiency in infrared wavelength devices. Through chemical etching with hydrofluoric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and tartaric acid we characterize the types of surface textures formed and the removal rate of entire layers of GaSb. Through optimization of the etching recipes we lower the reflectivity from 35.7% to 1% at 4 μm wavelength for bare and textured GaSb, respectively. In addition, we simulate surface textures using ray optics in finite element method solver software to provide explanation of our experimental findings.