Patent ID: 8871547

Claim:
A method for fabricating a vertical light-emitting diode (VLED) structure comprising: providing a carrier substrate; forming a semiconductor structure on the carrier substrate comprising a p-GaN confinement layer, a multiple quantum well (MQW) layer in electrical contact with the p-GaN confinement layer configured to emit electromagnetic radiation, and an n-GaN confinement layer in electrical contact with the multiple quantum well (MQW) layer; forming a reflective layer on the p-GaN confinement layer; forming a conductive substrate on the reflective layer; removing the carrier substrate from the semiconductor structure on the reflective layer and the conductive substrate using a laser pulse to expose a nitrogen-terminated surface of the n-GaN confinement layer; and forming a metal contact on the nitrogen-terminated surface of the n-GaN confinement layer comprising a material selected from the group consisting of Al/Ni/Au, AlTi/Ni/Au, Al/Pt/Au, Al/TaN/Au, AlTi/Pt/Au, AlTi/TaN/Au, AlSi/Ni/Au, AlSi/Pt,/Au, AlSiTaN/Au, AlCu/Ni/Au, AlCu/Pt/Au, and AlCu/TaN/Au.