GaN nanorods, essentially free from crystal defects and exhibiting very sharp band-edge luminescence, have been grown by reactive direct-current magnetron sputter epitaxy onto Si (111) substrates at a low working pressure of 5 mTorr. Upon diluting the reactive N₂ working gas with a small amount of Ar (0.5 mTorr), we observed an increase in the nanorod aspect ratio from 8 to ~35, a decrease in the average diameter from 74 to 35 nm, and a two-fold increase in nanorod density. With further dilution (Ar = 2.5 mTorr), the aspect ratio decreased to 14, while the diameter increased to 60 nm and the nanorod density increased to a maximum of 2.4 × 10⁸ cm-2. Yet, lower N₂ partial pressures eventually led to the growth of continuous GaN films. The observed morphological dependence on N₂ partial pressure is explained by a change from N-rich to Ga-rich growth conditions, combined with reduced GaN-poisoning of the Ga-target as the N₂ gas pressure is reduced. Nanorods grown at 2.5 mTorr N₂ partial pressure exhibited a high intensity 4 K photoluminescence neutral donor bound exciton transitions (D⁰XA) peak at ~3.479 eV with a full-width-at-half-maximum of 1.7 meV. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy corroborated the excellent crystalline quality of the nanorods.
Keywords: GaN; TEM; X-ray diffraction; magnetron sputter epitaxy; nanorods; photoluminescence; sputtering.