Geometrical Selection of GaN Nanowires Grown by Plasma-Assisted MBE on Polycrystalline ZrN Layers

GaN nanowires grown on metal substrates have attracted increasing interest for a wide range of applications. Herein, we report GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on thin polycrystalline ZrN buffer layers, sputtered onto Si(111) substrates. The nanowire orientation was stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 13; no. 18; p. 2587
Main Authors: Olszewski, Karol, Sobanska, Marta, Dubrovskii, Vladimir G., Leshchenko, Egor D., Wierzbicka, Aleksandra, Zytkiewicz, Zbigniew R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2023
MDPI
Subjects:
Angles (geometry)
Attitude (inclination)
Buffer layers
Density
Diffraction
Epitaxial growth
Epitaxy
Gallium compounds
Gallium nitrides
GaN nanowires
geometrical selection
Geometry
Grain size
Identification and classification
Misfit dislocations
Molecular beam epitaxy
Nanoparticles
Nanotechnology
nanowire orientation
Nanowires
Nitrides
Nucleation
Plasma
Polycrystals
Properties
Scanning electron microscopy
Silicon substrates
Temperature
Thin films
X-ray diffraction
X-rays
Zirconium nitrides
ZrN buffer layers
Poland
Russia
ISSN:2079-4991, 2079-4991
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:GaN nanowires grown on metal substrates have attracted increasing interest for a wide range of applications. Herein, we report GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on thin polycrystalline ZrN buffer layers, sputtered onto Si(111) substrates. The nanowire orientation was studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, and then described within a model as a function of the Ga beam angle, nanowire tilt angle, and substrate rotation. We show that vertically aligned nanowires grow faster than inclined nanowires, which leads to an interesting effect of geometrical selection of the nanowire orientation in the directional molecular beam epitaxy technique. After a given growth time, this effect depends on the nanowire surface density. At low density, the nanowires continue to grow with random orientations as nucleated. At high density, the effect of preferential growth induced by the unidirectional supply of the material in MBE starts to dominate. Faster growing nanowires with smaller tilt angles shadow more inclined nanowires that grow slower. This helps to obtain more regular ensembles of vertically oriented GaN nanowires despite their random position induced by the metallic grains at nucleation. The obtained dense ensembles of vertically aligned GaN nanowires on ZrN/Si(111) surfaces are highly relevant for device applications. Importantly, our results are not specific for GaN nanowires on ZrN buffers, and should be relevant for any nanowires that are epitaxially linked to the randomly oriented surface grains in the directional molecular beam epitaxy.
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ISSN:2079-4991
2079-4991
DOI:10.3390/nano13182587