Quaternary alloy semiconductor nanobelts with bandgap spanning the entire visible spectrum.

We used an improved cothermal evaporation route for the first time to achieve quaternary semiconductor nanostructured alloys, using an example of Zn(x)Cd(1-x)S(y)Se(1-y) nanobelts. The PL (bandgap) of these as-grown nanostructured alloys can be continuously tunable across the entire visible spectrum through experimentally controlling their compositions. Such widely controlled alloy nanostructures via composition/light emission provide a new material platform for applications in wavelength-tunable lasers, multicolor detectors, full-spectrum solar cells, LEDs, and color displays.