Influence of substrate material, orientation, and surface termination on GaN nanowire growth

Journal Article · Thu Aug 07 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4892113· OSTI ID:22314562

Schuster, Fabian; Weiszer, Saskia; Hetzl, Martin; Winnerl, Andrea; Garrido, Jose A.; Stutzmann, Martin ^[1]

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1. Walter Schottky Institut and Physics Department, Technische Universität München, Am Coulombwall 4, 85748 Garching (Germany)

In this work, we investigate the fundamental role of the substrate material, surface orientation, and termination on GaN nanowire (NW) nucleation and growth. First of all, the use of a patterned a-Si/diamond substrate confirms that NW shape and dimension are mainly determined by the applied growth conditions instead of the nature of the substrate. More important is the surface orientation as it defines growth direction and epitaxial relationship towards the GaN NWs, where both (111) and (100) surfaces yield NW growth for equivalent growth conditions. (110) substrates are found to be not suited for NW growth. Finally, the surface termination of diamond is demonstrated to survive the employed growth conditions and, therefore, to affect the nucleation of nanowires and the electronic properties of the heterointerface by its surface dipoles. This difference in nucleation is exploited as an alternative approach for selective area growth without deposition of a foreign mask material, which might also be transferable to other substrates.

• OSTI ID: 22314562
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 116; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DEPOSITION
DIAMONDS
DIPOLES
EPITAXY
GALLIUM NITRIDES
NUCLEATION
ORIENTATION
QUANTUM WIRES
SHAPE
SUBSTRATES
SURFACES