Molecular beam epitaxy growth and optical properties of AlN nanowires

Abstract

Growth of catalyst-free AlN nanowires has been achieved by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on SiO2/Si (100), by taking advantage of Volmer–Weber growth mode of AlN on amorphous SiO2. Using a combination of high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, it is found that AlN nanowires are completely relaxed, which has been assigned to the compliant character of SiO2. Elastic strain relaxation of AlN nanowires has been further confirmed by photoluminescence experiments, showing in addition that spectra are dominated by near-band edge emission.