Patent ID: 8309381

Claim:
A method for producing a light-emitting device comprising a growth substrate made of Group III nitride semiconductor, and a Group III nitride semiconductor layer stacked on the top surface of the growth substrate, the method comprising: forming, between the growth substrate and the semiconductor layer, a stopper layer exhibiting resistance to a wet etchant; and wet-etching the bottom surface of the growth substrate until the stopper layer is exposed, wherein the growth substrate comprises GaN, wherein the stopper layer comprises AlGaN including an Al compositional proportion in a range from 5% to 40% and including a band gap greater than a band gap of a material of the growth substrate, wherein the growth substrate comprises a c-plane substrate, and the top surface and the bottom surface of the substrate comprise a Ga-polar surface and an N-polar surface, respectively, and wherein the wet-etching of the bottom surface comprises photo-enhanced chemical reaction (PEC) etching employing light including a wavelength corresponding to an energy which is greater than a band gap of the material of the substrate, and less than a band gap of a material of the stopper layer.