III-Nitride nanowires for UV-visible optoelectronics

Compared to planar films, III-nitride nanowires have several potential advantages for device applications. Using a top-down approach, high quality III-nitride-based nanowires with controllable height, pitch and diameter have been realized. The fabrication, structural characterization, and luminescence of both axial and radial type III-nitride nanowire LEDs will be presented, along with a discussion of their relative merits and weaknesses. The lasing characteristics of GaN-based and GaN/InGaN based nanowires fabricated by this approach will also be presented, along with schemes for single optical mode selection, polarization control, beam shaping, and wavelength tuning. Preliminary results on the top-down fabrication and characterization of AlGaN nanowires will also be presented.