GaN nanotweezers

A new form of GaN nanomaterial (nanotweezers) has been obtained by chemical vapor deposition on an etched cubic MgO (100) plane. The nanotweezers consist of a bottom rod and two arms. The bottom rods have diameters of about 100–150 nm and lengths of about 200–500 nm, on which two arms grow out. The bottoms of the arms are about 40–70 nm and the tops are about 15–30 nm in diameter, and 0.8–1.5 μm in length. X-ray and electron diffractions indicate the nanotweezers are zinc blende gallium nitride. We infer that the fabrication of the GaN nanotweezers is associated with small convex hillocks on the surface of the etched cubic MgO (100) single-crystal substrates and that the nanotweezers grow by a growth mechanism that is similar to vapor-phase heteroepitaxy. Received: 23 April 2002 / Accepted: 25 April 2002 / Published online: 10 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +86-10/8264-9531, E-mail: xlchen@aphy.iphy.ac.cn