SixPoint Materials has successfully switched to production of two-inch diameter GaN wafers using the ammonothermal method. Crystal quality values are high with dislocation densities typically in the low 10(5) cm(-2). In efforts to produce true epi-ready material, investigations were made to develop a technique to study surface damage caused by the back-end process using X-ray diffraction methods. Analysis of peak tailing from X-ray rocking curves of the (1 1 4) reflection indicates the progression of surface damage during each step of the backend process. For instance, the tailing can be partially represented using full width five thousand max (FW5000M) values. By using a peak with a low glancing angle, such as the (1 1 4) reflection's angle of 10.8662 degrees, more of the X-ray beam is scattered in the surface region, providing an improved measurement of surface damage. Since this technique is non-destructive and can be performed without dismounting the sample from its ceramic back-end processing plate, it can provide information on the damaged layer at each stage of the back-end process. Using this technique to evaluate samples from various manufacturers, we found a lack of uniformity in surface damage from GaN companies. It is our hope that this technique will be adopted to better standardize surface damage measurements in the GaN field.