We introduce a facile route for the top-down fabrication of ordered arrays of GaN nanowires with aspect ratios exceeding 10 and diameters below 20 nm. Highly uniform thin GaN nanowires are first obtained by lithographic patterning a bilayer Ni/SiNx hard mask, followed by a combination of dry and wet etching in KOH. The SiNx is found to work as an etch stop during wet etching, which eases reproducibility. Arrays with nanowire diameters down to (33 ± 5) nm can be achieved with a uniformity suitable for photonic applications. Next, a scheme for digital etching is demonstrated to further reduce the nanowire diameter down to 5 nm. However, nanowire breaking or bundling is observed for diameters below ≈ 20 nm, an effect that is associated to capillary forces acting on the nanowires during sample drying in air. Explicit calculations of the nanowire buckling states under capillary forces indicate that nanowire breaking is favored by the incomplete wetting of water on the substrate surface during drying. The observation of intense nanowire photoluminescence at room-temperature indicates good compatibility of the fabrication route with optoelectronic applications. The process can be principally applied to any GaN/SiNx nanostructures and allows regrowth after removal of the SiNx mask.
Ultrathin GaN nanowires (NWs) are attractive to maximize surface effects and as building block in high-frequency transistors. Here, we introduce a facile route for the top-down fabrication of ordered arrays of GaN NWs with aspect ratios exceeding 10 and diameters below 20 nm. Highly uniform thin GaN NWs are first obtained by using electron beam lithography to pattern a Ni/SiN x hard mask, followed by dry etching and wet etching in hot KOH. The SiN x is found to work as an etch stop during wet etching in hot KOH. Arrays with NW diameters down to (33 ± 5) nm can be achieved with a yield exceeding 99.9 %. Further reduction of the NW diameter down to 5 nm is obtained by applying digital etching which consists in plasma oxidation followed by wet etching in hot KOH. The NW radial etching depth is tuned by varying the RF power during plasma oxidation. NW breaking or bundling is observed for diameters below ≈ 20 nm, an effect that is associated to capillary forces acting on the NWs during sample drying in air. This effect can be principally mitigated using critical point dryers. Interestingly, this mechanical instability of the NWs is found to occur at much smaller aspect ratios than what is predicted for models dealing with macroscopic elastic rods. Explicit calculations of buckling states show an improved agreement when considering an inclined water surface, as can be expected if water assembles into droplets. The proposed fabrication route can be principally applied to any GaN/SiN x nanostructures and allows regrowth after removal of the SiN x mask.
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