Bi-Assisted CdTe/CdS Hierarchical Nanostructure Growth for Photoconductive Applications

We developed a method to control the structure of CdTe nanowires by adopting Bi-mixed CdTe powder source to a catalyst-assisted chemical vapor deposition, which allowed us to fabricate CdTe/CdS hierarchical nanostructures. We demonstrated that diverse nanostructures can be grown depending on the combination of the Bi powder and film catalysts. As a proof of concepts, we grew CdTe/CdS branched nanowires for the fabrication of photodetectors. The hierarchical nanostructure-based photodetectors showed an improved photoresponsivity compared to the single CdTe nanowire (NW)-based photodetector. Our strategy can be a simple but powerful method for the development of advanced optoelectronic devices and other practical applications.