Growth of GaN nanowires by ammoniating Ga2O3 thin films deposited on quartzwith radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Abstract

GaN nanowires have been synthesized by ammoniating Ga2O3 oxide thinfilms. Ga2O3 films with a thickness of ∼500 nm were deposited on quartzsubstrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction,scanning electronic microscope, transmission electronic microscope andhigh-resolution TEM results show that the majority of the GaN nanowires have asingle-crystal hexagonal wurtzite structure with major axis [110] alignment. Aminority are polycrystalline, composed of overlapped parallelepiped GaNnanocrystals, which gives the wires a herringbone topography. The diametersof the wires range from 10 to 90 nm and the lengths are up to 50 μm.The achievement of GaN nanowires by ammoniating Ga2O3 presents a novelmethod for synthesizing one-dimensional nanometre materials without theassistance of a template or a catalyst.