Extraordinary N atom tunneling in formation of InN shell layer on GaN nanorod m-plane sidewall

We report the extraordinary tunneling process that finds the lower cohesive energy route for stablizing InN shell layer on m-plane sidewall of GaN nanorod. The [0001] orientated GaN nanorod array is grown on sapphire substrate patterned with Ga nanoparticle by metal-organic vapor deposition method, based on which the simulation structures of c-plane top surface and m-plane sidewall surface is constructed for the first-principles calculations. The results show that the introduction of In wetting monolayer could effectively lower the cohesive energy of adalayers on non-polar GaN surfaces. Most importantly, it is revealed that there exists an extraordinary tunneling process in which the N atoms will drag out the In wetting atoms and tunnel through to form stable InN shell layer on the nanorod sidewall.