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Nanowire photonics

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 569–576 (2009)Cite this article

Semiconductor nanowires, by definition, typically have cross-sectional dimensions that can be tuned from 2–200 nm, with lengths spanning from hundreds of nanometres to millimetres. These subwavelength structures represent a new class of semiconductor materials for investigating light generation, propagation, detection, amplification and modulation. After more than a decade of research, nanowires can now be synthesized and assembled with specific compositions, heterojunctions and architectures. This has led to a host of nanowire photonic devices including photodetectors, chemical and gas sensors, waveguides, LEDs, microcavity lasers, solar cells and nonlinear optical converters. A fully integrated photonic platform using nanowire building blocks promises advanced functionalities at dimensions compatible with on-chip technologies.

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Figure 1: Semiconductor nanowire growth.
Figure 2: Semiconductor nanowire heterojunctions.
Figure 3: Nanowire assembly with optical trapping.
Figure 4: Nanowire nanolasers.
Figure 5: Nanowire waveguides and nonlinear optical converter.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge here contributions of members of our research group and collaborators on this nanowire photonics programme. This work was supported by the Office of Basic Science, US Department of Energy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. P.Y. would like to thank the National Science Foundation for the A.T. Waterman Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Ruoxue Yan, Daniel Gargas & Peidong Yang

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Ruoxue Yan, Daniel Gargas & Peidong Yang

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Yan, R., Gargas, D. & Yang, P. Nanowire photonics. Nature Photon 3, 569–576 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.184

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