Aligned AlN nanowires by self-organized vapor-solid growth

Highly oriented AlN single crystal nanowires with aspect ratio up to 600, diameter in the range of 40-500 nm, and 100 μm lengths, have been synthesized via a vapor-solid growth mechanism. The results were obtained at 1750 0C and 850 mbar nitrogen pressure on vicinal SiC substrates pretreated by SiC sublimation epitaxy in order to attain distinguishable terraces. It was found that the nanowires change in thickness after they have reached a critical length, and this fact contributes to an understanding of the growth mechanism of AlN nanowires. The nanowires are hexagonally shaped and perfectly aligned along the [0001] direction with a small tilt given by the substrate vicinality. Under nitrogen excess a preferential growth along the c-axis of the wurtzite structure takes place while below some critical value of nitrogen pressure the growth mode switches to lateral. The AlN nanowires are shown to have a dislocation free wurtzite crystal structure. Some possible applications are discussed.