Electroluminescence from AlN nanowires grown on p-SiC substrate

Abstract

Aluminum nitride (AlN) nanowires were prepared by the carbothermal reduction method. A heterojunction light-emitting diode (LED) was fabricated by depositing randomly aligned AlN nanowires onto p-type 4H–SiC substrate. When a forward bias voltage greater than 8 V was applied to the LED, a broad band emission peaked at 417 nm could be observed. The peak deconvolution revealed four emission peaks at ∼ 400, 420, 468, and 525 nm. These emission peaks may be attributed to the radiative recombination between electrons from trap-level states and holes from the valence band of the AlN nanowires.