Sharp infrared emission from single-crystalline indium nitride nanobelts prepared using guided-stream thermal chemical vapor deposition

Single-crystalline InN nanobelts have been synthesized using Au as the catalyst by a guided-stream thermal chemical vapor deposition technique. The resultant InN nanobelts typically have widths ranging from 20 to 200 nm, a width to thickness ratio of 2-10, and lengths of up to several tens of micrometers. Structural analysis shows that these InN nanobelts have a wurtzite structure and exhibit a rectangular cross section with self-selective facets, i.e., the nanobelts are enclosed only by ±(001) and ±(11̄0) planes with [110] being the exclusive growth direction along their long axis. This facet selectivity can be understood by the differences in the surface energies of the different facets. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of InN nanobelts show a sharp infrared emission peak at 0.76 eV with a full width at half maximum of 14 meV, narrower than the values reported for InN epi-layers. The integrated PL intensity is found to increase linearly with the excitation power, which suggests that the observed PL can be attributed to direct band-to-band emission.