Self-organized hierarchical zinc phosphide nanoribbon-zinc sulfide nanowire heterostructures

Hierarchical Zn₃P₂ nanoribbon-ZnS nanowire heterostructures were synthesized by simple thermal evaporation of the mixture of ZnS and InP powders. Studies found that the synthesized hierarchical heterostructures consisted of single crystalline Zn₃P₂ nanoribbons with numerous single crystalline [0001]-oriented ZnS nanowires grown perpendicular to the Zn₃P₂ nanoribbons. The growth mechanism of the hierarchical heterostructures was investigated in detail by studying the intermediate samples synthesized at different times. Low-temperature cathodoluminescence properties of the heterostructures were investigated, where two emission bands centered at 600 nm and 790 nm were observed, corresponding to the defect-related emission of ZnS and band gap emission of Zn₃P₂, respectively. Single heterostructure-based devices were also fabricated to study their photoconducting properties, showing decent responses to lights with different wavelengths.