The fabrication of SiO2 nanotube (SiO2-NT) arrays and their promising application in improving light extraction of vertical structure GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) are proposed. Compared to regular vertical-conducting light emitting dioded (VLEDs), the proposed VLEDs with SiO2-NT arrays (2-3 mu m in length) show increases in light output power (Lop) by 49.860.4% at 350 mA. In comparison to VLEDs with ZnO nanowire arrays having the same the dimension, enhancement of 12.322.9% in Lop has been achieved from the proposed devices. These improvements could be attributed to the use of SiO2-NT arrays that not only boost the angular randomization of emitted photons but also enhance light transmission from the waveguiding effect. (c) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3516955] All rights reserved.