Lattice-Polarity-Driven Epitaxy of Hexagonal Semiconductor Nanowires

Lattice-polarity-driven epitaxy of hexagonal semiconductor nanowires (NWs) is demonstrated on InN NWs. In-polarity InN NWs form typical hexagonal structure with pyramidal growth front, whereas N-polarity InN NWs slowly turn to the shape of hexagonal pyramid and then convert to an inverted pyramid growth, forming diagonal pyramids with flat surfaces and finally coalescence with each other. This contrary growth behavior driven by lattice-polarity is most likely due to the relatively lower growth rate of the (0001̅) plane, which results from the fact that the diffusion barriers of In and N adatoms on the (0001) plane (0.18 and 1.0 eV, respectively) are about 2-fold larger in magnitude than those on the (0001̅) plane (0.07 and 0.52 eV), as calculated by first-principles density functional theory (DFT). The formation of diagonal pyramids for the N-polarity hexagonal NWs affords a novel way to locate quantum dot in the kink position, suggesting a new recipe for the fabrication of dot-based devices.