The formation of hexagonal-shaped InGaN-nanodisk on GaN-nanowire observed in plasma source molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

We report on the properties and growth kinetics of defect-free, photoluminescence (PL) efficient mushroom-like nanowires (MNWs) in the form of ∼30nm thick hexagonal-shaped InGaN-nanodisk on GaN nanowires, coexisting with the conventional rod-like InGaN-on-GaN nanowires (RNWs) on (111)-silicon-substrate. When characterized using confocal microscopy (CFM) with 458nm laser excitation, while measuring spontaneous-emission at fixed detection wavelengths, the spatial intensity map evolved from having uniform pixelated emission, to having only an emission ring, and then a round emission spot. This corresponds to the PL emission with increasing indium composition; starting from emission mainly from the RNW, and then the 540 nm emission from one MNWs ensemble, followed by the 590 nm emission from a different MNW ensemble, respectively. These hexagonal-shaped InGaN-nano-disks ensembles were obtained during molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) growth. On the other hand, the regular rod-like InGaN-on-GaN nanowires (RNWs) were emitting at a shorter peak wavelength of 490 nm. While the formation of InGaN rod-like nanowire is well-understood, the formation of the hexagonal-shaped InGaN-nanodisk-on-GaN- nanowire requires further investigation. It was postulated to arise from the highly sensitive growth kinetics during plasma-assisted MBE of InGaN at low temperature, i.e. when the substrate temperature was reduced from 800 °C (GaN growth) to <600 °C (InGaN growth), during which sparsely populated metal-droplet formation prevails and further accumulated more indium adatoms due to a higher cohesive bond between metallic molecules. © 2014 SPIE.