Investigation of the growth and properties of single-crystalline aluminum nitride nanowires

The growth of high-quality, large-scale wurtzite-structured aluminum nitride (AlN) nanowires on c-Al2O3 substrates using a catalyst-assisted chemical vapor deposition method was investigated. The morphology and structure of the nanowires were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. These uniform nanowires exhibit a smooth surface and are 50 nm in diameter and 10–30 μm long; they also exhibit a hexagonal single-crystal lattice with parameters of c=0.497 nm and a=0.272 nm and grow along the [100] direction. A room-temperature near-band edge emission at 6.12 eV was observed in their electron excitation spectra. Our approach provides a simple and efficient method to grow high-quality AlN nanowires, and our results indicate that they are promising materials for use in various applications.