Scaling growth kinetics of self-induced GaN nanowires

We present a kinetic model showing why self-induced GaN nanowires synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy obey the scaling growth laws. Our model explains the scaling behavior from kinetic considerations of the step flow radial growth and the shadow effect. The nanowire length L and radius R scale with time as [1 + C(t - t(0))](alpha/(alpha+1)) and [1 + C(t - t(0))](1/(alpha+1)), respectively. Consequently, the length scales with the radius as L proportional to R-alpha. The power index alpha equals 2.46 in our conditions. This scaling behavior is paramount for understanding the self-induced growth of nanowires in general as well as for tuning their morphology to the desired properties. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3701591]