Growth of site- and polarity-controlled GaN nanowires on Silicon for high-speed LEDs

The growth of homogenously arrayed Gallium Nitride based nanowires with a subsequent Gallium Nitride / Gallium Indium Nitride quantum well shell is presented. The Gallium Nitride nanowires are grown epitaxially onto Silicon (111) substrate in the standard →c-direction of the wurtzite lattice. While the →c-direction of the Gallium Nitride wurtzite lattice suffers from high electrical polarization fields that degrade the speed performance of any Gallium Nitride based LED, the shell growth on the side facets of Gallium Nitride nanowire cores takes place in the →m direction perpendicular to the →c-direction and is hence free of polarization fields. This approach holds the promise to provide a safe, cheap, and fast light source for in-car communication via polymer optical fibres and for in-office communication via room lightning.