Selective and Sensitive Photon Sieve Based on III–V Semiconductor Nanowire Forest Fabricated by Lithography-Free Process

Vertically oriented semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have been intensely studied in macroscopic perspective due to their attractive applications such as optical filters, photodiodes, and solar cells. However, microscopic photonic phenomena of dense and random NWs have been rarely, and their promising applications have not been explored. Therefore, this article theoretically and experimentally investigates the microscopic photonic event of dense and random NWs using highly selective and sensitive photon sieve (SSPS), which employs highly populated III/V semiconductor NW forests fabricated with a lithography-free self-catalyzed growth method. Theoretical analyses reveal that diameter-dependent and selective photon absorption occurs even for a dense and disordered NW distribution. The engineered growth process affords highly populated NW forests (mean shortest interval = 192.4 nm) comprising NWs with a high aspect ratio (mean aspect ratio = 34.3) and a sufficiently broad diameter distribution to span the visible spectrum and decompose it (mean diameter = 94 nm, standard deviation = 49 nm). Moreover, the SSPS exhibits unique spectral responses to monochromatic light of different wavelengths (correlation coefficients < 0.03) and a high sensitivity with a highest absorptivity of 92.4%. This work indicates SSPSs can be utilized for various applications of artificial photoreceptor, physically unclonable function, and high efficient optoelectronics.