ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the progress in the fabrication of gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires (NW) and their employment in photonic and electronic nanodevices. It provides an overview of the early discovery of GaN NWs and their most relevant properties. The chapter also summarizes advantages and drawbacks of the two most common GaN NW fabrication methods, the bottom-up approach via self-assembled (SA) heteroepitaxy and the top-down approach via selective etching. The bottom-up growth is usually performed by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy or molecular beam epitaxy. The chapter presents a description of the mechanisms which drive the GaN NW formation by SA growth homoepitaxy. It addresses convenience of SA growth to obtain NWs with exceptional crystal quality and in a highly controlled manner. The chapter also presents insights into the realization of GaN-NW-based photonic and electronic devices, such as quantum light emitters and field effect nanotransistors. It explores the fabrication and characterization of single photon sources, relying on a pencil-like InGaN/GaN dot-in-a-wire structure.
