Nitride Nanopatterning for Optoelectronic Advancements

Nanopatterning of inorganic materials is an emerging field with a wide range of applications such as optoelectronics, photonics, energy, and biomedical engineering. Group III nitride materials particularly Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Aluminum Nitride (AlN), are noteworthy due to their exceptionally wide bandgaps, enabling emissions across the ultraviolet (UV) and visible spectrum. Nitride-based planar structures are commonly used for blue LEDs and recently nanostructures have gained attention for growth on low-cost dissimilar substrates, better light extraction properties, and carrier confinement. Nitride material growth is challenging due to high-temperature requirements and lattice mismatch with conventional substrates. We used Sequential Infiltration Synthesis (SIS) to develop nanopatterns of AlN, allowing for scalable and well-ordered growth of patterned nanomaterials. We have used polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate (PS-b-PMMA) self-assembled nanostructures as a guiding pattern. We analyzed the nitride patterns using Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Nanopatterning nitride materials with SIS could lead to new, cost-effective substrate-independent nitride-based optoelectronic device applications.