Direct observation of nucleation and early stages of growth of GaN nanowires

Published

February 15, 2012

Author(s)

Rosa E. Diaz, Renu Sharma, Karalee Jarvis, Qinglei Zhang, Subhash Mahajan

Abstract

We report for the first time direct observations of the nucleation and early stages of growth of GaN nanowires. The nanowires were formed by exposing Au + Ga droplets to ammonia. The formation process was observed in situ, and controlled in real time using an environmental transmission electron microscope. Observations show that the nucleation starts in the thin regions of the droplets as they supersaturate with nitrogen. The droplet-nanowire interfaces in the initial stages are multi-faceted, and become planar during the growth. Chemical and structural analysis shows that the resulting nanowires are GaN single crystals with the wurtzitic structure.

Citation

Journal of Crystal Growth

Volume

341

Issue

1

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

GaN, Nanowires, In situ, Nucleation, ESTEM

Citation

Diaz, R. , Sharma, R. , Jarvis, K. , Zhang, Q. and Mahajan, S. (2012), Direct observation of nucleation and early stages of growth of GaN nanowires, Journal of Crystal Growth, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=906318 (Accessed October 11, 2025)