Nitridation effects of Si(111) substrate surface on InN nanorods grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

The InN nanorods were grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) system, with a substrate nitridation process. The effect of nitriding time of Si(1 1 1) substrate on morphology, orientation and growth temperature of InN nanorods was characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The deviation angle of InN nanorods was measured to evaluate the alignment of arrays. The results showed that InN nanorods could not be formed with 1 min nitridation of Si(1 1 1) substrate, but they could be obtained again when the nitriding time was increased to more than 10 min. In order to get aligned InN nanorods, the growth temperature needed to increase with longer nitriding time. The vertical orientation of InN nanorods could be enhanced with increase in nitriding time. The influence of the substrate nitridation on the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of InN nanorods has been investigated. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.