Vapor-liquid-solid condensation was utilized to fabricate zinc-blende GaN quantum dots on 3C-AlN (0 0 1) in a molecular beam epitaxy system. By adjustment of deposition parameters and nitridation procedure the density of the quantum dots was controllable in the range of 5 x 10(8)-5 x 10(12) cm(-2). The quantum dots in the range of 8 x 10(10)-5 x 10(12) cm(-2) have shown strong optical activity in photo-luminescence spectroscopy. Furthermore we have demonstrated that vapor-liquid-solid condensation is suitable to tune the emission energy of zinc-blende GaN quantum dots in the range of 3.55-3.81 eV. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.