A combination of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) was adopted to fabricate GaN-based core/shell NW structures. ALD was used to deposit a HfO2 shell of onto the MBE grown GaN NWs. Electron transparent samples were prepared by focussed ion beam methods and characterized using state-of-the-art analytical transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The polycrystalline coating was found to be uniform along the whole length of the NWs. Photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy analysis confirms that the HfO2 ALD coating does not add any structural defect when deposited on the NWs.
