Measurement of the electrostatic edge effect in wurtzite GaN nanowires

The electrostatic effect of the hexagonal corner on the electronic structure in wurtzite GaN nanowires (NWs) was directly measured using Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). By correlating electrostatic simulations with the measured potential difference between the nanowire face and the hexagonal vertices, the surface state concentration and band bending of GaN NWs were estimated. The surface band bending is important for an efficient design of high electron mobility transistors and for opto-electronic devices based on GaN NWs. This methodology provides a way to extract NW parameters without making assumptions concerning the electron affinity. We are taking advantage of electrostatic modeling and the high precision that KPFM offers to circumvent a major source of uncertainty in determining the surface band bending.