A simple route to aligned AlN nanowires

Abstract

Hexagonal AlN nanowire arrays were synthesized through the direct reaction of Al and NH 3/N 2 under the confinement of anodic porous alumina template. The synthesis mechanism could be understood as the space-limited nucleation followed by the growth along the template channels. The progress presented here could be used to fabricate nanowire arrays that have potential applications in many fields such as field emission and (opto)electronic nanodevices.