Near-Infrared-Light Photodetectors Based on One-Dimensional Inorganic Semiconductor Nanostructures

Recently, near-infrared light photodetectors (NIRPDs) have attracted increasing interest due to their promising applications in both military and civil purposes. One-dimensional inorganic semiconductor nanostructures (NSs) have unique electrical and optical properties and have been widely used to fabricate many NIRPDs. These prototype devices have geometries ranging from photoconductive-type photodetectors and metal-semiconductor Schottky junction photodetectors to nano-heterojunction photodetectors. They have good device performance including high responsivity and specific detectivity, fast response speed, low power consumption, etc. Here, we will review the state-of-the-art advance in the fabrication of 1D semiconductor NSs for NIRPD application. We first briefly survey recent progress in the growth and fabrication methodologies including both bottom-up and top-down approaches. We also highlight the achievement in this flourishing field by sketching device fabrication, comparing the device performance, and discussing the operation mechanism. Finally, we close with unresolved issues and challenges.