Growth of ternary ZnCdSe nanowires and the fabrication of ZnCdSe nanowire photodetectors

The authors report the growth of high density ternary ZnCdSe nanowires on an oxidized Si(100) substrate using molecular beam epitaxy and the fabrication of a ZnCdSe nanowire photodetector. It was found that the as-grown ZnCdSe nanowires exhibited a mixture of cubic zinc-blende and hexagonal wurtzite structures. It was also found that average length and width of the ZnCdSe nanowires were ∼1.8 μm and ∼42.7 nm, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that photocurrent to dark current contrast ratio was around 25 for the fabricated photodetector under 5 V applied bias.