Semiconductor Nanowires

Abstract

Semiconductors have played an extremely important role in the electrotechnical and electronic industries, which strive to miniaturize electronic devices and have increased the demand for a semiconductor with nanometric dimensions. Recently, great attention is focused on semiconductor nanowires (SNs), which results in their large surface-to-volume ratio, tunable electron transport, interesting optical properties, and many available techniques for their fabrication. Hence, this work presents the characteristics, synthesis methods, and application potential for SNs. This review is focused not only on the most popular nanowire production technique that is vapor-liquid-solid but also on other innovative technologies, including molecular and chemical beam epitaxy, solvothermal, electrospinning combined with the sol-gel technique. Attention is paid to the significant progress that was made in controlling the geometry and properties of nanostructures, which allowed the application possibilities of SNs to be increased in the construction of novel electronic and optoelectronic devices, energy conversion, harvesting, and storage, gas sensors, and biosensors. This review is intended to understand the impact of the manufacturing method on the morphology, structure, and properties of modern SNs, as well as highlight their wide application potential and indicate current challenges, but also the prospects for further development.