GaN nanowire arrays by a patterned metal-assisted chemical etching

• A metal mask-assisted chemical etching method that produce self-organized GaN nanowire arrays.
• Porous nanostructures morphology depends on etching rate.
• The etching mechanism was illustrated by two separated electrochemical reactions.

We developed an one-step and two-step metal-assisted chemical etching method to produce self-organized GaN nanowire arrays. In one-step approach, GaN nanowire arrays are synthesized uniformly on GaN thin film surface. However, in a two-step etching processes, GaN nanowires are formed only in metal uncovered regions, and GaN regions with metal-covering show nano-porous sidewalls. We propose that nanowires and porous nanostructures are tuned by sufficient and limited etch rate, respectively. PL spectra shows a red-shift of band edge emission in GaN nanostructures. The formation mechanism of nanowires was illustrated by two separated electrochemical reactions occur simultaneously. The function of metals and UV light was illustrated by the scheme of potential relationship between energy bands in Si, GaN and standard hydrogen electrode potential of solution and metals.