ZnO thin films have been grown heteroepitaxially on epi-GaN/sapphire (0001) substrates. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, ion channeling, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed high-quality epitaxial growth of ZnO on GaN with an atomically sharp interface. The x-ray diffraction and ion channeling measurements indicate near perfect alignment of the ZnO epilayers on GaN as compared to those grown directly on sapphire (0001). Low-temperature cathodoluminescence studies also indicate high optical quality of these films presumably due to the close lattice match and stacking order between ZnO and GaN. Lattice-matched epitaxy and good luminescence properties of ZnO/GaN heterostructures are thus promising for ultraviolet lasers. These heterostructures demonstrate the feasibility of integrating hybrid ZnO/GaN optoelectronic devices.

Large-scale wurtzite GaN nanowires and nanotubes were grown by direct reaction of metal gallium vapor with flowing ammonia in an 850–900 °C horizontal oven. The cylindrical structures were as long as 500 μm with diameters between 26 and ∼100 nm. Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction were used to measure the size and structures of the samples. Preliminary results show that the size of the nanowires depends on the temperature and the NH3 flow rate. The growth mechanism is discussed briefly. The simple method presented here demonstrates that GaN nanowires can be grown without the use of a template or catalyst, as reported elsewhere.

An approach for detecting the vibrational spectrum of transient species is demonstrated on the vinyl radical. Photodissociation of carefully chosen precursors at selected photolysis wavelengths produce highly vibrationally excited radicals. Infrared (IR) emission from these radicals is then measured by time-resolved Fourier transform spectroscopy with nanosecond time resolution. All nine vibrational bands of the vinyl radical, generated from four different precursors, are obtained and reported here for the first time.

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The state selective photodissociation of acetylene, C2H2/C2D2, was studied in the wavelength range 121.2–132.2 nm by high resolution Rydberg atom time-of-flight measurements on the atomic fragment, H/D. In the wavelength region studied members of all four Rydberg series and the highly excited Ẽ valence state were state selectively excited using tunable vacuum-ultraviolet laser radiation. The lifetime of the excited states which were studied varied from 58 fs to more than 2 ps. Formation of the ethynyl radical in its X̃ electronic ground state and its first electronically excited à state is observed with practically no indication of B̃ state fragments. Two decay channels with different dissociation dynamics were also observed. In both channels the observed decay dynamics depended strongly on the excited state of the parent molecule. Further there are major differences between these two dissociation pathways with respect to the measured internal energy and angular distributions. In one channel the dissociation is dominated by dynamical effects and the C2H fragments are formed with a high degree of vibrational excitation. In contrast to this in the second channel a smooth internal energy distribution is observed indicating that the fragment quantum state distribution is spread over a considerable range of the available phase space. Moreover, this second channel can be fit with a phase space model constrained only by conservation of energy and angular momentum. This is further evidence for the randomization of internal energy during the dissociation process.