Front Cover: Catalyst-free growth of InN nanorods by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (Phys. Status Solidi A 1/2012)

Min Hwa Kim et al. (pp. 50–55) report on the growth mechanism of catalyst‐free indium nitride nanorods on (0001) Al2O3 substrates using metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition. The cover picture shows atomic force microscopy (AFM) 3D images of an indium nitride nanostructure at initial stage. The pit formation on the c‐plane surface of islands already started even within one minute of growth. The pit formation at this initial stage is thought to be related with thermal desorption at energetically unstable regions like crystalline defects in nuclei of InN. As growth time increased, small pits got bigger and at the same time islands were coalesced. Finally, InN nanorods were formed.