Pole figure measurement of the initial growth of GaN nanoneedles on GaN/Si(111) by using hydride vapor phase epitaxy

We report on crystallographic analyses of one-dimensional GaN nanoneedles grown on a n-GaN epilayer by using hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The nanoneedles were grown with a HCl:NH3 gas flow ratio of 1:38 at 600 A degrees C. The growth time of the GaN nanoneedles affected their morphologies. As time progressed, GaN dots nucleated and then evolved as nanoneedles. The vertical growth rate of GaN nanoneedles was higher than the lateral growth rate under optimized growth conditions. X-ray pole figure measurements were carried out using a four-axis diffractometer. For the sample grown for 20 min, we obtained discrete patterns with six strong dots and weak dough-nut and cotton swab patterns, indicating that most of the nanoneedles were grown ideally, but partially, in the x-y plane with an azimuthal rotation angle I center dot = 15 similar to 45A degrees rotated to the substrate, and a few GaN nanoneedles were tilted by +/- 4A degrees or by more than 32A degrees from the vertical c-axis.