Influence of reaction time on growth of GaN nanowires fabricated by CVD method

GaN nanowires have been fabricated successfully on Si (111) substrates coated with NiCl₂ thin films by chemical vapor deposition method using Ga₂O₃ as raw material. The growth of GaN nanowires was investigated as a function of reaction times so as to study the influence of different durations on the components, microstructure, morphologies and optical properties of GaN samples in particular by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscope, and photoluminescence. The results show that the samples after reaction are single crystal GaN with hexagonal wurtzite structure and high-quality crystalline after reaction at 1,100 °C for 60 min, which have good optical properties as revealed by PL spectra. Reaction time greatly influences the growth of GaN nanowires, that is, with the increase in reaction time, the crystalline quality of GaN nanowires is improved accordingly. The growth of the GaN nanowires follows the vapor–liquid-solid mechanism and Ni plays an important role as catalyst, which forms nucleation point in the growth of GaN nanowires.