Fabrication and structural studies of opal-III nitride nanocomposites

In this paper, regular three-dimensional systems of GaN, InN and InGaN nano clusters have been fabricated for the first time in a void sublattice of ar tificial opal. The opal consisted of 220 nm diameter close packed amorphous silica spheres and had a regular sublattice of voids accessible to filling by other substances. GaN, InN and InGaN were synthesized directly in the o pal voids from precursors such as metal salts and nitrogen hydrides. The co mposites' structures have been characterized using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and optical measurements.