Nucleation mechanism of gas-phase InGaN nanoparticles

The nucleation mechanism of nanoparticles during the growth of InGaN by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition was investigated using density functional theory quantum chemical calculations to explore molecules that are most likely to become the cores of nanoparticles. On the basis of previous research on the nucleation mechanism of nanoparticles in the III-V system, several possible nucleation pathways are proposed for gas-phase InGaN nanoparticles, focusing on the cross-reaction between In and Ga. The possibility of forming different crossreaction products is also discussed. Among the several reaction pathways examined, the possibilities of generating several cross-reaction products with similar configurations (i.e., [MMGaNHDMInNH2]2 and [MMInNHDMGaNH2]2, [MMGaNHDMInNH2]3 and [MMInNHDMGaNH2]3) were similar; the self-polymerization of [MMXNH]n was most likely to occur, and [MMInNH]4 and [MMInNH]6 were most likely to become the core of nanoparticles.