Guided CdSe Nanowires Parallelly Integrated into Fast Visible-Range Photodetectors

One-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures, such as nanowires (NWs), have attracted tremendous attention due to their unique properties and potential applications in nanoelectronics, nano-optoelectronics, and sensors. One of the challenges toward their integration into practical devices is their large-scale controlled assembly. Here, we report the guided growth of horizontal CdSe nanowires on five different planes of sapphire. The growth direction and crystallographic orientation are controlled by the epitaxial relationship with the substrate as well as by a graphoepitaxial effect of surface nanosteps and grooves. CdSe is a promising direct-bandgap II-VI semiconductor active in the visible range, with potential applications in optoelectronics. The guided CdSe nanowires were found to have a wurtzite single-crystal structure. Field-effect transistors and photodetectors were fabricated to examine the nanowire electronic and optoelectronic properties, respectively. The latter exhibited the fastest rise and fall times ever reported for CdSe nanostructures as well as a relatively high gain, both features being essential for optoelectronic applications.