GaN nanopillars with a nickel nano-island mask

Uniform GaN nanopillar arrays have been successfully fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching using self-organized nickel nano-islands as the masks on GaN/sapphire.GaN nanopillars with diameters of 350 nm and densities of 2.6 108 cm..2 were demonstrated and controlled by the thickness of Ni film and the NH3 annealing time.These GaN nanopillars show improved optical properties and strain change compared to that of GaN film before ICP etching.Such structures with large-area uniformity and high density could provide additional advantages for light emission of light-emitting diodes,quality improvement of ELO regrowth,etc.