Complete composition tunability of Cd1-xZnxTe alloy nanostructures along a single substrate

Semiconductor alloy nanostructures with tunable compositions provide excellent material platforms for function-tunable and/or broadband-response optoelectronic applications. Here we report the growth of high quality single-crystalline Cd1-xZnxTe alloy nanostructures in the full-composition region on a single substrate via a simple co-thermal evaporation route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations confirm that the lattice parameters gradually increase with the increase of cadmium contents. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that these composition-tunable alloy nanostructures exhibit near-bandedge emissions, with peaks wavelength continuously changing from 554 nm to 819 nm. These alloy nanostructures will find potential applications in near-infrared function-tunable optoelectronic devices, such as high-performance laterally-arranged multiple-bandgap solar cells, variable-wavelength photodetectors and so on. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.