ZnS nanostructure arrays: A developing material star

Abstract

Semiconductor nanostructure arrays are of great scientific and technical interest because of the strong non-linear and electro-optic effects that occur due to carrier confinement in three dimensions. The use of such nanostructure arrays with tailored geometry, array density, and length-diameter-ratio as building blocks are expected to play a crucial role in future nanoscale devices. With the unique properties of a direct wide-bandgap semiconductor, such as the presence of polar surfaces, excellent transport properties, good thermal stability, and high electronic mobility, ZnS nanostructure arrays has been a developing material star. The research on ZnS nanostructure arrays has seen remarkable progress over the last five years due to the unique properties and important potential applications of nanostructure arrays, which are summarized here. Firstly, a survey of various methods to the synthesis of ZnS nanostructure arrays will be introduced. Next recent efforts on exploiting the unique properties and applications of ZnS nanostructure arrays are discussed. Potential future directions of this research field are also highlighted. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.