Much efforts have been devoted to achieve conductivity control in the ultrahigh band gap ͑ϳ6.1 eV͒ AlN by Si doping. The effects of Si-doping on the structural and optical properties of AlN epilayers have been investigated. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that accumulation of tensile stress in Si-doped AlN is a reason for the formation of additional edge dislocations. Photoluminescence ͑PL͒ studies revealed that the linewidths of both band-edge and impurity related transitions are directly correlated with the density of screw dislocations, N screw , which increases with the Si doping concentration ͑N Si ͒. Furthermore, it was formulated that the band-edge ͑impurity͒ PL emission linewidth increases linearly with increasing N screw at a rate of ϳ3.3Ϯ 0.7 meV/ 10 8 cm −2 ͑26.5Ϯ 4 meV/ 10 8 cm −2 ͒, thereby establishing PL measurement as a simple and effective method to estimate screw dislocation density in AlN epilayers.