Nanometre-sized inorganic dots, wires and belts have a wide range of electrical and optical properties, and variable mechanical stability and phase-transition mechanisms that show a sensitive dependency on size, shape and structure. The optical properties of the semiconductor ZnS in wurtzite structures are considerably enhanced, but the lack of structural stability limits technological applicat...

The electrical properties, the spontaneous polarization, and the piezoelectric response of ZnO can be tailored by alloying ZnO with BeO for applications such as electrodes in flat panel displays and solar cells, blue and ultraviolet (UV) light emitting devices, and highly sensitive UV detectors. We present here the results of a study that employs density-functional theory to analyze the crystal...

We report the first successful synthesis and characterization of single-crystal wurtzite CdSe nanoribbons through a simple thermal evaporation process. Asymmetric growth of the nanoribbons occurs, yielding a sawlike shape with sharp teeth on one side. This asymmetric growth is suggested to be induced by the polarization of the c-plane in the wurtzite crystal structure.

GaAs was radially deposited on InAs nanowires by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and resultant nanowire heterostructures were characterized by detailed electron microscopy investigations. The GaAs shells have been grown in wurtzite structure, epitaxially on the wurtzite structured InAs nanowire cores. The fundamental reason of structural evolution in terms of material nucleation and int...

Ambient S annealing was adopted to regulate the crystallinity of a ZnS microsphere, which resulted in a significant improvement in the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity (PHPA). Moreover, with S ambient treatment, wurtzite ZnS showed better PHPA than sphalerite ZnS, possibly because the inter-polar electric field of the wurtzite phase could promote the separation of photo-excited elect...

We identify two categories of reconstructions occurring on wurtzite GaN surfaces, the first associated with the N-face, (000 ), and the second associated with the Ga-face, (0001). Not only do these two categories of reconstructions have completely different symmetries, but they also have different temperature dependence. It is thus demonstrated that surface reconstructions can be used to identi...

Ambient S annealing was adopted to regulate the crystallinity of a ZnS microsphere, which resulted in a significant improvement in the photocatalytic hydrogen production activity (PHPA). Moreover, with S ambient treatment, wurtzite ZnS showed better PHPA than sphalerite ZnS, possibly because the inter-polar electric field of the wurtzite phase could promote the separation of photo-excited elect...

Ultra-narrow wurtzite ZnS quantum wires assembled towards an onion slice shape are synthesized in water using a simple hydrothermal procedure. Wires are formed through an oriented attachment mechanism from wurtzite ZnS spherical particles. Strong confinement effect originated from the narrow width was observed and holds promise for use in broad optoelectronic device application.