Controllable fabrication of lateral periodic nanoporous GaN and its enhanced photocatalytic water splitting performance

Gallium nitride (GaN) is considered as one of the most promising candidates for water splitting due to its wide band gap and good chemical stability. Here, we fabricate different kinds of lateral periodic, well-ordered nanoporous GaN in wafer scale using cyclic anodization. The nanoporous morphologies can be modulated precisely by changing the waveforms of the applied voltage during the anodization process. The photocurrent of the lateral periodic nanoporous GaN increases by ~5.1 times compared with the planar GaN. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the three dimensional modulation of the electric fields of incident light as simulated by FDTD method. This approach could pave a way to develop the III-nitride semiconductor with fine nanostructure for photocatalytic applications.