Optical anisotropy and light extraction efficiency of MBE grown GaN nanowires epilayers.

The use of nanowires as active medium seems very promising for the development of high brightness LEDs. With a lower effective refractive index than bulk, semiconductor nanowire layers may lead to a high light extraction efficiency. We hereafter discuss the anisotropic properties of dense arrays of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires and the consequences on the optical design of nanowire based LEDs. In particular we show numerically that light extraction efficiency as high as 72% can be expected for GaN nanowires layer grown on a low cost Si substrate.