International Conference on Enabling Science and Nanotechnology 2012 (ESciNano 2012) 5-7 January 2012, Persada Johor International

Convention Center, Johor Bahru, MALAYSIA

Applications of Image Processing (IP) Method on The Structure Measurements in Porous GaN.
Ainorkhilah Mahmood*a,b, Naser Mahmoud Ahmeda, Asmiet Ramizya, Zainuriah Hassana, Yam Fong Kwonga, Chuah Lee Siangc and Mohd Bukhari Md Yunusb

Nano-Optoelectronics Research and Technology Laboratory, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia, b Department of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 13500 Permatang Pauh, Penang, Malaysia, c Physics Section, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia. *ainor_khilah@yahoo.com.my

Porous wide bandgap semiconductors have attracted significant interest due to their promising features such as high surface area, shift of band gap, luminescence intensity enhancement and efficient photoresponse [1-3]. The interest in porous GaN arises from the fact that they exhibit unique and superior properties for example the excellent thermal, mechanical and chemical stability. These special prospect robustly motivated the research in porous GaN; additionally, porous GaN can act as sink for threading dislocations and accommodate the strain [4-7]. In this work, porous GaN was prepared by UV assisted electrochemical etching method. This method was employed in this work due to several advantages such as low processing temperature, low structural damage, process simplicity, versatility and low processing cost. The sample is required to be connected to power supply and biased positive and ultra-violet (UV) illumination is used to assist in the generation of electron-hole pairs. The porous GaN structures fabrication and their quantitative structural characteristics study are based on mathematical morphology analysis by using the scanning electrons microscope (SEM) images. The quality of porous GaN quality can be carried out by performing a nondestructive investigation of its nanostructures which can be performed by adapting image analysis techniques to obtain rapid, objective and quantitative information. The algorithm used in this work was implemented in MATLAB software and it was possible to obtain the distribution of maximum, minimum and average radius of the pores. Moreover, the porosity of the structures was feasible to be obtained with the calculation of the area occupied by the pores. The flowchart of the MATLAB program was shown in steps as the following in Fig 1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the porous GaN samples generated under different current densities were shown in Fig 2. SEM in Fig 2 show well-defined layers of pores with different sizes as a result of monocrystalline epilayer structure of GaN. It appears that etching first occurs at the centre of grain structures with the grain boundaries remain un-etched as grain boundaries are mostly defined by threading dislocation [8]. This leads to the formation of hexagonal trenches. For the 20 mA/cm2 sample, the etching was in the initial stage, pores started to form and mostly hexagonal shaped structures were observed. For the 40 mA/cm2 and 60 mA/cm2 samples, the surface became relatively rough. The new algorithm computes the size distribution of the pores and classifies the pores in nanometers. The new algorithm to compute the GaN porosity revealed that for the as grown sample, there was less than 1% defect porosity. For 20 mA/cm2, 40 mA/cm2 and 60 mA/cm2 samples, the porosity were 19.8 %, 20.3 % and 28.2 % respectively. In summary, the new IP logarithm showed to be an effective tool for SEM images processing in order to analyze quantitatively the porous materials parameters. References
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ESciNano 2012 http://www.fke.utm.my/mine/escinano2012

978 1 4577 0798 8/12/$26.00 2012 IEEE

International Conference on Enabling Science and Nanotechnology 2012 (ESciNano 2012) 5-7 January 2012, Persada Johor International Convention Center, Johor Bahru, MALAYSIA
[7] R. S. Qhalid Fareed, V. Adivarahan, C. Q. Chen. S. Rai. E. Kuokstis, W. Yang, M. Asifkhan, J. Caissie, R. J. Molnar, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84 (2004) 696 [8] H. Hartono, C. B. Soh, S.J. Chua, E. A. Fitzgerald, Phys. Stat. Sol (C) 4 (2007) 2572-2575

(a)

Read image

Convert the image to grayscale

Filtering the image

(b)

Bounds the objects (holes)

(c)

Calculate the remainder (mode)

Separated the holes (large, medium, small)

(d)

End
Figure 1. Flowchart of the MATLAB program

Figure 2. SEM images of different samples. (a) as grown, (b) 20 mA/cm2, (c) 40 mA/cm2, and (d) 60 mA/cm2

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