Synthesis and photonic applications of gallium nitride nanowires

High quality single crystal gallium nitride nanowires (GaN NWs) are synthesized with a novel chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Transport studies of single crystal GaN nanowire devices exhibit n-type transistor behavior with high electron mobility. Ultraviolet (UV) light sensors are fabricated with GaN NW devices. The nanowire sensors exhibited a substantial increase in conductance upon UV light exposure. In addition to the selectivity to different light wavelengths, short response and recovery time have also been obtained. In addition, a polarization anisotropy effect was demonstrated and studied for GaN NWs working as polarized UV detectors. The nanowire conductance varied periodically with the polarization angle of the incident light (/spl theta/), which can be well fitted into a function of cos/sup 2//spl theta/.