Band-gap engineering of semiconductor nanowires through composition modulation.

Alloyed ternary CdS(1-x)Se(x) nanowires were synthesized by template-assisted electrodeposition, in which the ratio of S to Se in the nanowires was controlled by adjusting the relative amounts of the starting materials. Higher-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the alloyed ternary CdS(1-x)Se(x) nanowires are highly crystalline, and no phase-separated Cd was observed in these nanowires. Optical measurements indicated that the band-gap engineering can be realized in these CdS(1-x)Se(x) nanowires through modulating the composition of S and Se. With broadly tunable optical and electrical properties, these alloyed nanowires could be used in color-tuned nanolasers, biological labels, and nanoelectronics.