Effects of plasma power on material and optical quality of GaN nanorods grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

The growth of wurtzite GaN(0001) nanorods on Si(111) substrates in the nitrogen-rich regime was studied in comparison with nitrogen species generated from a remote inductively coupled plasma source. A reduction in incorporation rate and a substantial deterioration in the quality of GaN nanorods were found to be correlated with an increase in plasma power. On the basis of the observation of defect formation in the initial growth stage and its propagation during the growth, the degradation of material perfection by the increased energy delivered by active nitrogen species at high power was discussed.