Space charged region in GaN and InN nanocolumns investigated by Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

High quality InN and GaN nanocolumns of different length and diameter grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) were electrically characterized directly and non-destructively by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as a function of the column diameter. The “exact” column diameter was determined from AFM images by Blind Tip Estimation (BTE) and subsequent image reconstruction in order to avoid artefacts due to the finite AFM tip radius. In GaN, the conductivity rises up to a “critical” diameter due to a depletion region at the surface of the nanocolumns and remains constant above. In contrast, the electron accumulation at the surface causes decreasing conductivity in InN nanocolumns with increasing diameter. Thus, the nanocolumn surface acts as the preferential conduction path. These facts prove that there is electron accumulation in as-grown non-polar InN surfaces, according to calculations of the Fermi level pinning in InN.