A Single Polymer Nanowire Photodetector.pdf

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200601012 A Single Polymer Nanowire Photodetector** By Garret A. O’Brien, Aidan J. Quinn, David A. Tanner, and Gareth Redmond* Semiconducting nanowires and nanotubes are an emerging class of 1D nanostructures that represent attractive building blocks for nanoscale electronic and photonic devices. For ex- ample, inorganic semiconductor nanowires[1–3] and carbon nanotubes,[4] show great promise for nanoelectronic devices and integrated nanosystems because they can function both as device components for logic, memory, and sensing applica- tions and also as interconnects. Inorganic semiconductor nanowires are also attracting increasing research interest as building blocks for integrated nanophotonic systems, since they can function as subwavelength optical waveguides, emis- sive devices, and photodetectors.[1–3,5–12] With respect to the latter, photoconductance measurements have recently been reported for a range of single inorganic nanowire devices: InP,[5] ZnO,[6] GaN,[7] and Si,[8] as well as for carbon-nanotube devices.[13] While inorganic nanowires and carbon nanotubes have been explored in depth, the challenge of controlled fabrica- tion of 1D nanostructures based on organic molecular materi- als suitable for integrated (opto)electronic applications has yet to be as comprehensively addressed. In particular, semi- conducting polymers are attractive materials due to their chemically tunable optical and electronic properties, as well as their facility for solution processing.[14,15] 1D nanostructures fabricated from such polymers have been the subject of recent research with regard to their physical, chemical, electronic, and photonic properties.[16–20] However, demonstration of vi- able polymer nanowire technologies will require the develop- ment of reliable methods for the production of such structures with good control over critical parameters such as diameter, length, morphology, and chemical composition. Recently, a new method for the formation