The role of surface diffusion in the growth mechanism of III-nitride nanowires and nanotubes.
Abstract The spontaneous growth of GaN nanowires (NWs) in absence of catalyst is controlled by the Ga flux impinging both directly on the top and on the side walls and diffusing to the top. The presence of diffusion barriers on the top surface and at the frontier between the top and the sidewalls, however, causes an inhomogeneous distribution of Ga adatoms at the NW top surface resulting in a GaN accumulation in its periphery. The increased nucleation rate in the periphery promotes the spontaneous formation of superlattices in InGaN and AlGaN NWs. In the case of AlN NWs, the presence of Mg can enhance the otherwise short Al diffusion length along the sidewalls inducing the formation of AlN …
The influence of AlN buffer over the polarity and the nucleation of self-organized GaN nanowires
We experimentally investigate the influence of AlN buffer growth on the nucleation and the polarity of a self-organized assembly of GaN nanowires (NWs) grown on Si. Two complementary growth mechanisms for AlN buffer deposited on Si are demonstrated. Both emphasize the aggregation of Si on the AlN surface and the growth of large cubic crystallites, namely, AlN pedestals. Further growths of GaN NWs assembly reveal that the GaN 2D layer found at the bottom of the NW assembly is the result of the coalescence of Ga-polar pyramids, whereas AlN pedestals are observed as preferential but not exclusive NW nucleation sites. NWs are N-polar or exhibit inversion domains with a Ga-polar core/N-polar she…