Highly Luminescent (Zn,Cd)Te/CdSe Colloidal Heteronanowires with Tunable Electron-Hole Overlap

We report the synthesis of ultranarrow (Zn,Cd)Te/CdSe colloidal heteronanowires, using ZnTe magic size clusters as seeds. The wire formation starts with a partial Zn for Cd cation exchange, followed by self-organization into segmented heteronanowires. Further growth occurs by inclusion of CdSe. The heteronanowires emit in the 530 to 760 nm range with high quantum yields. The electron hole overlap decreases with increasing CdSe volume fraction, allowing the optical properties to be controlled by adjusting the heteronanowire composition.