Effect of temperature on growth and ultraviolet photoluminescence of Zn doped AlN nanostructures

• High crystalline quality AlN complex nanostructures are synthesized.
• Growth temperature increase favors the Zn incorporation.
• The growth rate of AlN nanostructures decreases with Zn incorporation.
• The growth temperature and Zn doping strongly affect luminescence.

Zn-doped AlN nanostructures were synthesized via a catalyst-free chemical vapor deposition method under different growth temperatures. The surface morphologies and size of nanostructures are significantly affected by the growth temperature. The undoped sample shows an ultraviolet emission band at 360 nm, which is attributed to the transition from ONtoVAl defect complex to the ONON level. With increasing temperature, the doped samples exhibit two new emissions centered at 282 and 320 nm. The band at 320 nm is related to the nitrogen vacancies, and the band at 282 nm can be ascribed to the transition from nitrogen vacancies with three positive charges to neutral Zn acceptors. These results indicate that temperature increase favors the Zn incorporation which strongly affects the growth and luminescence of samples.