We use Raman scattering to study the spatially-resolved strain and stress in a complex zinc blende GaAs/GaP heterostructured nanowire which contains both axial and radial interfaces. The nanowires are grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition in the [111] direction with Au nano particles as catalysts, High spatial resolution Raman scans along the nanowires show the GaAs/GaP interface is clearly identifiable. We interpret the phonon energy shifts in each material as one approaches the interface.

We study the photocurrent from photoexcited charged carriers excited with lasers of energy both above and below the energy gap in CdS nanostructures. We observe non-linear photocurrents in CdS nanosheet devices in the metal-semiconductor-metal configuration with Schottky contacts for sub-band gap excitations. Analysis of two-photon absorption dominated photocurrents reveals a nonlinear coefficient of β = 2 cm/GW for these nanosheet devices, which is comparable to those of bulk CdS. We demonstrate the use of the photocurrent polarization measurements to determine the orientation of atoms in the nanosheet.

Selective synthesis of silica nanowires on silicon wafers catalyzed by Pd ion implantation is reported.Nanoclusters of palladium silicide acts as seeds for nucleation of wires following a Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) growth model. The consumption of silicide towards nanowire growth is confirmed through Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS).The influence of growth time, implantation dose and heating temperature on the structure and morphology of the wires is investigated. Optimization of the these tunable parameters would be needed to facilitate controlled and directed bottom-up growth of silica nanowires.Such selective synthesis may enable a large number of applications in wide areas of future technologies such as localization of light, low dimensional waveguides for functional microphotonics, scanning near field optical microscopy (SNOM), optical interconnects, sacrificial templates, optical transmission antennae and biosensors.