Structural characterizations of GaN nanowires grown on Si (111) substrates by thermal evaporation

Highlight
• This paper reports an inexpensive and easy but successful method to synthesize highly crystalline GaN NWs.
• Room temperature SEM determined that the diameter and length of the GaN NWs are in a good range as NWs.
• This work indicates that the size of the GaN NWs can be controlled by changing the experimental growth conditions.

In this work wurtzite GaN nanowires (NWs) on silicon (111) substrates were grown, using commercial GaN powder by thermal evaporation in an atmosphere of argon (Ar) gas. Structural and optical characterizations were performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The obtained results of GaN NWs indicated that the NWs on Si (111) substrates are of good quality single-crystal hexagonal GaN due to the small lattice mismatch between the NWs and substrates compared to the growth of GaN NWs on other substrates.