Spontaneous nucleation and growth of GaN nanowires: Fundamental role of crystal polarity

Abstract: We experimentally investigate whether crystal polarity affects the growth of GaN nanowires in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy and whether their formation has to be induced by defects. For this purpose, we prepare smooth and coherently strained AlN layers on 6H-SiC(0001) and SiC(000$\bar{1}$) substrates to ensure a well-defined polarity and an absence of structural and morphological defects. On N-polar AlN, a homogeneous and dense N-polar GaN nanowire array forms, evidencing that GaN nanowires form spontaneously in the absence of defects. On Al-polar AlN, we do not observe the formation of Ga-polar GaN NWs. Instead, sparse N-polar GaN nanowires grow embedded in a Ga-polar GaN layer. These N-polar GaN nanowires are shown to be accidental in that the necessary polarity inversion is induced by the formation of Si$_{x}$N. The present findings thus demonstrate that spontaneously formed GaN nanowires are irrevocably N-polar. Due to the strong impact of the polarity on the properties of GaN-based devices, these results are not only essential to understand the spontaneous formation of GaN nanowires but also of high technological relevance.