A single crystalline InP nanowire photodetector

Single crystalline nanowires are critical for achieving high-responsivity, high-speed, and low-noise nanoscale photodetectors. Here, we report a metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector based on a single crystalline InP nanowire. The nanowires are grown by a self-catalyzed method and exhibit stacking-fault-free zinc blende crystal structure. The nanowire exhibits a typical n-type semiconductor property and shows a low room temperature dark current of several hundred pA at moderate biases. A photoresponsivity of 6.8 A/W is obtained at a laser power density of 0.2 mW/cm2. This work demonstrates that single crystalline InP nanowires are good candidates for future optoelectronic device applications.