Photovoltaics based on nanowire arrays could reduce cost and materials consumption compared with planar devices but have exhibited low efficiency of light absorption and carrier collection. We fabricated a variety of millimeter-sized arrays of p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p-i-n) doped InP nanowires and found that the nanowire diameter and the length of the top n-segment were critical for cell performance. Efficiencies up to 13.8% (comparable to the record planar InP cell) were achieved by using resonant light trapping in 180-nanometer-diameter nanowires that only covered 12% of the surface. The share of sunlight converted into photocurrent (71%) was six times the limit in a simple ray optics description. Furthermore, the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.906 volt exceeds that of its planar counterpart, despite about 30 times higher surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire cell.

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Controlled growth of nanowires is an important, emerging research field with many applications in, for example, electronics, photonics, and life sciences. Nanowires of zinc blende crystal structure, grown in the <111>B direction, which is the favoured direction of growth, usually have a large number of twin-plane defects. Such defects limit the performance of optoelectronic nanowire-based devices. To investigate this defect formation, we examine GaP nanowires grown by metal-organic vapour-phase epitaxy. We show that the nanowire segments between the twin planes are of octahedral shape and are terminated by {111} facets, resulting in a microfaceting of the nanowires. We discuss these findings in a nucleation context, where we present an idea on how the twin planes form. This investigation contributes to the understanding of defect formation in nanowires. One future prospect of such knowledge is to determine strategies on how to control the crystallinity of nanowires.

We report growth of one-dimensional semiconductor nanocrystals, nanowhiskers, in which segments of the whisker with different composition are formed, illustrated by InAs whiskers containing segments of InP. Our conditions for growth allow the formation of abrupt interfaces and heterostructure barriers of thickness from a few monolayers to 100s of nanometers, thus creating a one-dimensional landscape along which the electrons move. The crystalline perfection, the quality of the interfaces, and the variation in the lattice constant are demonstrated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and the conduction band off-set of 0.6 eV is deduced from the current due to thermal excitation of electrons over an InP barrier.

We present results of ideal epitaxial nucleation and growth of III−V semiconductor nanowires on silicon substrates. This addresses the long-time challenge of integrating high performance III−V semiconductors with mainstream Si technology. Efficient room-temperature generation of light on silicon is demonstrated by the incorporation of double heterostructure segments in such nanowires. We expect that advanced heterostructure devices, such as resonant tunneling diodes, superlattice device structures, and heterostructure photonic devices for on-chip communication, could now become available as complementary device technologies for integration with silicon.

The formation of nanostructures with controlled size and morphology has been the focus of intensive research in recent years. Such nanostructures are important in the development of nanoscale devices and in the exploitation of the properties of nanomaterials. Here we show how tree-like nanostructures ('nanotrees') can be formed in a highly controlled way. The process involves the self-assembled growth of semiconductor nanowires via the vapour-liquid-solid growth mode. This bottom-up method uses initial seeding by catalytic nanoparticles to form the trunk, followed by the sequential seeding of branching structures. Each level of branching is controlled in terms of branch length, diameter and number, as well as chemical composition. We show, by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, that the branching mechanism gives continuous crystalline (monolithic) structures throughout the extended and complex tree-like structures. The controlled seeding method that we report here has potential as a generic means of forming complex branching structures, and may also offer opportunities for applications, such as the mimicking of photosynthesis in nanotrees.

We report on the growth of designed heterostructures placed within semiconductor nanowhiskers, exemplified by the InAs/InP material system. Based on transmission electron microscopy, we deduce the interfaces between InAs and InP to be atomically sharp. Electrical measurements of thermionic emission across an 80-nm-wide InP heterobarrier, positioned inside InAs whiskers 40 nm in diameter, yield a barrier height of 0.6 eV. On the basis of these results, we propose new branches of physics phenomena as well as new families of device structures that will now be possible to realize and explore.

Semiconductor heterostructures and their implementation into electronic and photonic devices have had tremendous impact on science and technology. In the development of quantum nanoelectronics, one-dimensional (1D) heterostructure devices are receiving a lot of interest. We report here functional 1D resonant tunneling diodes obtained via bottom-up assembly of designed segments of different semiconductor materials in III/V nanowires. The emitter, collector, and the central quantum dot are made from InAs and the barrier material from InP. Ideal resonant tunneling behavior, with peak-to-valley ratios of up to 50:1 and current densities of 1 nA/μm2 was observed at low temperatures.