Recent Advances on III-Nitride Nanowire Light Emitters on Foreign Substrates – Toward Flexible Photonics

Flexible electronic and photonic devices have received broad interest in the past, due to their compact size, new functionalities, and other merits which devices on rigid substrates do not possess. In this context, the author review recent progresses on flexible III-nitride nanowire photonic devices, focusing on LEDs and lasers. The formation of III-nitride nanowire LEDs and lasers directly on various foreign substrates is firstly described, paving the way to flexible III-nitride nanowire photonic devices through either direct growth on or transfer to flexible substrates. The realization of flexible III-nitride nanowire LEDs through various transfer processes is further detailed. In the end, the challenges of III-nitride nanowire technology for flexible integrated photonics are discussed.