Doped elongated semiconductors, growing such semiconductors, devices including such semiconductors, and fabricating such devices

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires and doping the population of semiconductor nanowires while growing the semiconductor nanowires to produce a population of doped semiconductor nanowires, each of the semiconductor nanowires having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers,
• wherein the act of growing comprises growing the population of semiconductor nanowires catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires using laser-assisted catalytic growth, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%;
• and
• depositing the semiconductor nanowires on a surface to form a field-effect transistor.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%;
• and
• depositing the semiconductor nanowires on a surface to form a device comprising one or more than one of a switch, a diode, a light-emitting diode, a tunnel diode, a Schottky diode, a Bipolar Junction Transistor, an inverter, an optical sensor, a sensor for an analyte, a memory device, a laser, a logic gate, a latch, a register, an amplifier, a signal processor, a digital or analog circuit, a light emission source, a photodiode, a phototransistor, a photovoltaic device, or combinations thereof.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%, wherein at least some of the catalyst particles comprises gold.

A method, comprising:

• making a semiconductor nanowire junction by crossing at least one p-type semiconductor nanowire with at least one n-type semiconductor nanowire, wherein one or both of the p-type semiconductor nanowire and the n-type semiconductor nanowire are chosen from a population of semiconductor nanowires grown according to a method comprising growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%, wherein the population of semiconductor nanowires have a variation in diameter of less than about 10%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles pre-selected to minimize aggregation and to have substantially uniform size selected such that at least four of the semiconductor nanowires have a variation in diameter of less than 20%, wherein the grown semiconductor nanowires have a variation in diameter of less than about 10%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles pre-selected to minimize aggregation and to have substantially uniform size selected such that at least four of the semiconductor nanowires have a variation in diameter of less than 20%, wherein the catalyst particles are pre-selected by dilution.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, from size-selected catalyst particles, wherein the catalyst particles are size-selected to have a variation in diameter of less than about 20%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, from size-selected catalyst particles, wherein the catalyst particles are size-selected by dilution.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires using laser-assisted catalytic growth, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, from size-selected catalyst particles.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles selected such that the population of semiconductor nanowires produced according to the method has a variation in diameter of less than 20%.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers;
• and
• depositing the semiconductor nanowires on a surface to form a field-effect transistor.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers;
• and
• depositing the semiconductor nanowires on a surface to form a device comprising one or more than one of a switch, a diode, a light-emitting diode, a tunnel diode, a Schottky diode, a Bipolar Junction Transistor, an inverter, an optical sensor, a sensor for an analyte, a memory device, a laser, a logic gate, a latch, a register, an amplifier, a signal processor, a digital or analog circuit, a light emission source, a photodiode, a phototransistor, a photovoltaic device, or combinations thereof.

A method, comprising:

• growing a population of semiconductor nanowires, each having at least one portion having a smallest width less than 500 nanometers, catalytically from catalyst particles, wherein the population of semiconductor nanowires have a variation in diameter of less than about 10%.

An article comprising a plurality of electrical components each comprising first and second electrodes and a semiconductor nanoscale wire electrically coupling the first and second electrodes, wherein each of the nanoscale wires of the article comprises at least one portion having a smallest width of less than 500 nanometers, wherein each of the nanoscale wires of the article is taken from a population of nanoscale wires having a variation in average diameter of less than 20% relative to each other, the population of nanoscale wires being grown catalytically from a population of catalyst particles, and wherein at least a portion of at least some of the nanoscale wires are doped during growth of the nanoscale wire from the catalyst particle.

An article, comprising:

• a plurality of devices, each comprising first and second electrodes and at least one non-nanotube nanoscale wire disposed between the first and second electrodes and having a smallest dimension that is less than about 500 nm, wherein each of the nanoscale wires of the device is taken from a population of nanoscale wires grown catalytically from a population of catalyst particles having a variation in diameter of less than 20%, and wherein at least a portion of at least some of the nanoscale wires are doped during growth of the nanoscale wire from the catalyst particle.

A device comprising a plurality of doped semiconductors, wherein each of the doped semiconductors of the device is at least one of the following:

• an elongated semiconductor that, at any point along its longitudinal axis, has a largest cross-sectional dimension less than 500 nanometers, and a semiconductor with at least one portion having a smallest width of less than 500 nanometers, wherein each of the doped semiconductors of the device is a nanoscale wire taken from a population of nanoscale wires having a variation in average diameter of less than 20% relative to each other, the population of nanoscale wires being grown catalytically from a population of catalyst particles, and wherein at least a portion of at least some of the nanoscale wires is doped during growth of the nanoscale wire from the catalyst particle.