Hydrogen in-situ etching of GaN surface to reduce non-radiative recombination centers in 510-nm GaInN/GaN quantum-wells

•The presence of surface defects (SDs) at the n-type GaN surface was identified.•To remove/reduce the SDs, the in-situ n-type GaN surface etching was conducted.•The in-situ n-type GaN surface etching using H2 successfully reduces the SDs.•Thereby, a creation of non-radiative recombination center was partially suppressed.•The internal quantum efficiency was improved by a factor of 3 with this method.