We report deep ultraviolet (UVC) emitting core-shell-type AlGaN/AlN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on the AlN nanorods which are prepared by catalyst/lithography free process. The MQWs are grown on AlN nanorods on a sapphire substrate by polarity-selective epitaxy and etching (PSEE) using hightemperature metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The AlN nanorods prepared through PSEE have a low dislocation density because edge dislocations are bent toward neighboring N-polar AlN domains. The core-shell-type MQWs grown on AlN nanorods have three crystallographic orientations, and the final shape of the grown structure is explained by a ball-and-stick model. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity of MQWs grown on AlN nanorods is approximately 40 times higher than that of MQWs simultaneously grown on a planar structure. This result can be explained by increased internal quantum efficiency, large active volume, and increase in light extraction efficiency based on the examination in this study. Among those effects, the increase of active volume on AlN nanorods is considered to be the main reason for the enhancement of the PL intensity.Aluminum nitride (AlN) based devices operating in the deep ultraviolet (UVC) regime (200-280 nm) have attracted considerable attention owing to their wide range of potential applications such as medical therapy, UV curing, biochemical sensing, water or air purification, and disinfection 1-3 . However, AlN based UVC devices still suffer from low quantum efficiency and output power. Although the external quantum efficiency of UVC light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has increased dramatically lately, most of the reported efficiency values remain at a few percent of the commercially required level. The low internal quantum efficiency due to a high dislocation density 4,5 and polarization coefficient 6,7 is the bottleneck for high-performance UVC applications.Such critical obstacles can be surmounted by introducing three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures because of their high stress relaxation, low dislocation density, increased active volume, and high extraction efficiency 8,9 . However, AlN based nanostructures for UVC light emitters have seldom been investigated because of the difficulty of using patterned masks. Selective area growth is strongly inhibited because Al atoms have very high sticking coefficient. Zhao et al. recently reported that these difficulties can be addressed by employing nitrogen (N)-polar Al(Ga)N nanowires grown on a Si substrate using a lithography-free process 10 . They developed self-organized AlN nanowire LEDs operating at 210 nm, the shortest wavelength ever reported for a nanostructure, and also reported an AlN nanowire laser diode fabricated by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) 9,11 . However, AlN or sapphire substrates are preferable for devices operating in the UVC regime because they are transparent to UVC emission. The polarity of the AlN layer can be controlled by varying the preflow conditions before AlN growth and the annealing temperature...