We present the full thermoelectric characterization of nanostructured bulk PbTe and PbTe-PbSe samples fabricated from colloidal core-shell nanoparticles followed by spark plasma sintering. An unusually large thermopower is found in both materials, and the possibility of energy filtering as opposed to grain boundary scattering as an explanation is discussed. A decreased Debye temperature and an increased molar specific heat are in accordance with recent predictions for nanostructured materials. On the basis of these results we propose suitable core-shell material combinations for future thermoelectric materials of large electric conductivities in combination with an increased thermopower by energy filtering.

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) composed of cadmium selenide (CdSe) have been directly grown on transparent conductive substrates via the solution-liquid-solid (SLS) approach using electrodeposited bismuth nanoparticles (Bi NPs) as catalyst. Bi NPs were fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces from a bismuth trichloride solution using potentiostatic double-pulse techniques. The size and density of electrodeposited Bi NPs were controlled by the pulse parameters. Since the NW diameter is governed by the dimension of the Bi catalyst, the electrodeposition is a reliable method to synthesize nanowires directly on substrates with a desired size and density. We show that the density can be adjusted from individual NWs on several square micrometer to very dense NW networks. The diameter can be controlled between thick nanowires above 100 nm to very thin NW of 7 nm in diameter, which is well below the respective exciton dimension. Hence, especially the thinnest NWs exhibit diameter-dependent photoluminescence energies as a result of quantum confinement effects in the radial dimension.

Highly sensitive and fast photodetector devices with CdSe quantum nanowires as active elements have been developed exploiting the advantages of electro- and wet-chemical routes. Bismuth nanoparticles electrochemically synthesized directly onto interdigitating platinum electrodes serve as catalysts in the following solution-liquid-solid synthesis of quantum nanowires directly on immersed substrates under mild conditions at low temperature. This fast and simple preparation process leads to a photodetector device with a film of nanowires of limited thickness bridging the electrode gaps, in which a high fraction of individual nanowires are electrically contacted and can be exposed to light at the same time. The high sensitivity of the photodetector device can be expressed by its on/off ratio or its photosensitivity of more than 10(7) over a broad wavelength range up to about 700 nm. The specific detectivity and responsivity are determined to D* = 4 × 10(13) Jones and R = 0.32 A/W, respectively. The speed of the device reflects itself in a 3 dB frequency above 1 MHz corresponding to rise and fall times below 350 ns. The remarkable combination of a high sensitivity and a fast response is attributed to depletion regions inside the nanowires, tunnel-junction barriers between nanowires, and Schottky contacts at the electrodes, where all of these features are strongly influenced by the number of photogenerated charge carriers.