AlN single crystals are grown by physical vapor transport (PVT) in sintered TaC crucibles in the presence of SiC, i.e. by seeding on 6H-SiC or by adding SiC to the AlN source material. Different growth conditions, i.e. growth temperatures T=1900-2050 degrees C and off-orientation angles in respect to [0001] phi=0-42 degrees, are applied in order to investigate to which extent the incorporation of Si and/or C can be controlled during the PVT growth. Chemical analysis is performed by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). The grown crystals are significantly contaminated with Si and C in the range of several atomic percents, but they do not represent pseudo-binary AlN-SiC solid solutions. Samples cut from these crystals are probed by Raman micro-spectroscopy, optical absorption, cathodoluminescence (CL), and near band-gap photoluminescence (PL) in order to evaluate the crystal properties. All crystals exhibit phonon bands at the positions of AlN phonon energies, and a low-temperature band-gap exceeding 5.8 eV, which is only slightly lower than the band-gap of pure AlN. On the other hand, the samples show very different optical properties below the band-gap, including coloration. As the changes in optical properties do not correlate to chemical analysis, we suggest that self-compensation of silicon and carbon as well as formation of intrinsic defects lead to a complex compensation scenario in the samples. The grown crystals are thus to be considered as highly compensated. Si/C co-doped AlN. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.