Chapter 9
Spectroscopic Characterization
of Gallium Nitride Nanowires
Umesh Rizal and Bibhu Prasad Swain
Introduction
Nanometer-scale structures represent an emerging and rapidly expanding area of
research due to photon, phonon, and electron confinement. The large surface to
volume ratio, constrain at the molecular level and change in the phonon density of
states have great impact on the process related properties of material. In this regard,
GaN-NWs with wide direct band gaps of 3.4 eV, considered as novel material for
fabrication of blue/green light emitting diodes, developing nanoscale emitters, detec-
tors, biological/chemical sensors, laser diodes, and high-temperature devices [1]. The
selection of catalyst is important parameter in the growth process of GaN-NWs. The
catalyst influences the nucleation at the initial stage. The following important factors
decides the formation of GaN-NWs (a) eutectic temperature of metal and GaN alloys,
(b) surface energy of catalysts during dissociation, (c) adatom vapor pressure inside
the reactor, (d) adatom vapor pressure inside catalyst particles. Lee et al. have synthe-
sized GaN nanorings, nanoribbons and smooth nanowires on MgO substrate using
Ag catalyst and observed that the diameter of GaN-NWs varies from 10–20 nm
and length extended up to 500 μm[2]. Maliakkal et al. successfully synthesized
Ni catalyzed GaN-NWs of diameter 20–130 nm and length extended up to 6 μm
using MOCVD [3]. Kuykendall et al. synthesized vertical GaN-NWs of diameter
15–200 nm using Fe catalyst [4]. Chen et al. deposited GaN-NWs via conventional
APCVD process using In catalyst and found that the diameter of NWs varies from 10
U. Rizal (B )
Department of Chemistry, Sikkim Government College, Upper Kamrang, Namchi South Sikkim,
Sikkim 737126, India
e-mail: umeshrizal680@gmail.com
B. P. Swain (B )
Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Manipur, Langol, Imphal, Manipur
795004, India
e-mail: bpswain@nitmanipur.ac.in; bibhuprasad.swain@gmail.com
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
B. P. Swain (ed.), Nanostructured Materials and their Applications, Materials Horizons:
From Nature to Nanomaterials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8307-0_9
173