Laser-Driven Growth, Alignment, and Assembly of Semiconductor Nanowires in Solution

Low-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures are critical components in many advanced technologies, spanning diverse scientific areas including electronic devices, photonics, and electrochemical applications. In many cases, novel synthetic methods that enable on-demand growth, controlled assembly, and precise placement of low-dimensional semiconductors are desired. Here, we discuss our recent work published in <i>ACS Nano</i> describing the on-demand, laser-driven growth of colloidal semiconductor nanowires in solution. This first-of-its-kind demonstration of photothermally driven, solution-based semiconductor nanowire growth, utilizing the controlled laser irradiation of colloidal nanocrystals, enables the on-demand, solution-liquid-solid growth of a variety of semiconductor nanowires in a flexible, widely accessible platform that may potentially be advantageous in a number of different technological areas. In addition, we discuss our related work recently published in <i>Nature Communications</i>, describing the light-driven, precision alignment and controlled end-to-end assembly of low-dimensional semiconductor nanowires in organic solvent systems. Together, these works demonstrate a pair of new strategies available for the on-demand, light-driven growth and precision placement and assembly of semiconductor nanowires, and we hope that that these examples will lead to wider utilization of light-based techniques for the growth and assembly of low-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures for a variety of emerging technological applications.