Growth of oriented GaN nanowires by controlling nucleation conditions

Abstract

GaN nanowires (NWs) were grown on GaN(0001) coated sapphire substrate with Ni/Au catalyst by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Nucleation conditions were investigated for improving the growth orientation of NWs. With decreasing catalyst thickness from 5nm/5nm to 2nm/2nm, the NW orientation was improved and the NW morphology was changed from taper to cylindrical, due to the varying of growth mode. Vertical alignment of NWs can be further improved by inserting an additional hightemperature (850 • C) nucleation step with an optimum V/III flow ratio of 20.