Effect of Ga seeding layer on formation of epitaxial Y-shaped GaN nanoparticles on silicon

Silicon and aluminium nitrides, commonly used as buffer layers for GaN growth on Si are wide gap insulators, preventing barrier free charge-carrier transport across the heterojunction and limiting the functionality of GaN-on-silicon technology. In this work we explore possibility of direct growth of GaN on Si nano-heterostructures by PA-MBE with use of Ga-nanodroplets as seeds. It is demonstrated that use of seeding layer can result in formation of Y-shaped planar GaN nanoparticles (GaN tripods) along with commonly observed GaN nanowires. Growth mechanism, morphology and structural characterization of GaN/Si nano-heterostructures is discussed.