The role of surface diffusion in the growth mechanism of III-nitride nanowires and nanotubes.

The spontaneous growth of GaN nanowires in absence of catalyst is controlled by the Ga flux impinging both directly on the top and on the side walls and diffusing to the top. The presence of diffusion barriers on the top surface and at the frontier between the top and the sidewalls, however, causes an inhomogeneous distribution of Ga adatoms at the nanowire top surface resulting in a GaN accumulation in its periphery. The increased nucleation rate in the periphery promotes the spontaneous formation of superlattices in InGaN and AlGaN nanowires. In the case of AlN nanowires, the presence of Mg can enhance the otherwise short Al diffusion length along the sidewalls inducing the formation of AlN nanotubes.