P—GaN-down micro-LED on semi-polar oriented GaN

Disclosed herein are techniques for improving performance of micro light emitting diodes. According to certain embodiments, a semi-polar-oriented light emitting diode (LED) (e.g., grown on (20 2 1) plane or (11 2 2) plane) includes a buried p-GaN layer that is grown before the active region and the n-GaN layer of the LED are grown, such that the polarization-induced (including strain-induced piezoelectric polarization and spontaneous polarization) electrical field and the built-in depletion field in the active region are in opposite directions during normal operations, thereby reducing or minimizing the overall internal electric field that can contribute to Quantum-Confined Stark Effect. The buried p-GaN layer is grown on an n-i-n sacrificial etch junction, which can be laterally wet-etched to separate the semi-polar-oriented LED from the underlying substrate and expose the p-GaN layer for planar or vertical (rather than horizontal or lateral) activation.