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A conductive AlN epitaxial layer is successfully realized by spontaneously forming via-holes filled with n-AlGaN inside an AlN buffer layer on a Si substrate. The via-holes are found to originate from the formation of an Al–Si alloy, produced from a small amount of Al supplied to the Si substrate at the initial stage of the crystal growth of the n-AlN buffer layer using metal organic chemical vapor deposition and successive selective growth of n-AlN on the Si surface. The via-holes are filled with conductive n-AlGaN by successive epitaxial growth of n-AlGaN, making the insulating n-AlN buffer layer conductive. The vertical conductivity through this n-AlN buffer layer is enhanced more than 540 times compared with an n-AlN buffer layer without via-holes. Using this conductive n-AlN buffer layer on the Si substrate, we successfully fabricated a vertical n-AlGaN Schottky diode on the Si substrate for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]