Optoelectronics nanowire

Duan, X. Huang, Y. Cui, Y. Wang, I Lieber, C. M. 2001. Indium phosphide nanowires as building blocks for nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices. Nature 409 66-69. 

One-dimensional (ID) nanostructures have also been the focus of extensive studies because of their unique physical properties and potential to revolutionize broad areas of nanotechnology. First, ID nanostructures represent the smallest dimension structure that can efficiently transport electrical carriers and, thus, are ideally suited for the ubiquitous task of moving and routing charges (information) in nanoscale electronics and optoelectronics. Second, ID nanostructures can also exhibit a critical device function and thus can be exploited as both the wiring and device elements in architectures for functional nanosystems.20 In this regard, two material classes, carbon nanotubes2131 and semiconductor nanowires,32"42 have shown particular promise. 

Synthesis of one dimensional, two dimensional and three dimensional nanostructured metal oxides have attracted a great deal of interest for the past many years. Because of their size dependent catalytic and optoelectronic properties, they can be broadly tuned through size variation. Recently, extensive efforts have been made to synthesize one dimensional metal oxides nanostructures such as nanowires, nanobelts, nanotubes, nanorods, nanorings etc [Fig.2], Various methods have been used in literature for development of nanostructured metal oxides of varying shape and sizes are as follows. 

Electrospun nanofibers with electrical and electro-optical activities have received a great deal of interest in recent years because of their potential applications in nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices, for example nanowires, LEDs, photocells etc. Besides, one-dimensional (1-D) nanostmctures are the smallest dimensional stmctures for efficient transport of electrons and optical excitations. One of the potential future apphcations of conducting polymer nanofibers is as molecular wires, which are required to connect molecular devices to electrodes. For molecular devices, it is necessary to make nanowires with diameters in the order of the size of the molecular device. 

Figure 10.53 Optoelectronic response of a muitisegmented nanowire towards muitipie exposure to light (550 nm) at 0.5 Vbias, nium snd dark correspond to current flowing through the nanowire under light illumination and dark conditions, respectively. (Reprinted with permission from Electroanalysis, Magnetically Assembled Multi segmented Nanowires and Their Applications by M. A. Bangar, C. M. Hangarter, B. Yoo et al., 21, 1, 61-67. Copyright (2009) Wiley-VCH)...

Light-emitting ID nanomaterials made by conjugated potymers have unique features because they combine optoelectronic properties of semiconductors with structural properties of potymers. Organic nanowires, nanofibers, and nanotubes can be produced by different techniques, including template-assisted synthesis and vacuum sublimation. However, the lowthroughput of many of these approaches limits their application in photonic integrated systems. 

As the dimensionality of metals is reduced from the 3-dimensional bulk system to the 1-dimensional wire, the electronic or magnetic properties are changed drastically [26], With the advancement in the experimental techniques to fabricate the metal nanowires, we anticipate the possibilities of incorporating them in futuristic electronic/optoelectronic devices such as quantum devices, magnetic storage, nanoprobes, and spintronics. 

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