Nanowire-based device and array with coaxial electrodes

A nanowire-based solar cell device comprising:

• a pair of electrodes in a coaxial arrangement separated by a circumferential gap on a substrate, the pair having a vertical extent, the pair being vertically oriented on a horizontal surface of the substrate;
• a plurality of nanowires chaotically emanating from crystallites in a non-single crystalline material of an inner electrode of the pair, the nanowires connecting across the circumferential gap to an outer electrode of the pair, the nanowires being randomly located along the vertical extent;
• and
• a p-i-n junction, the electrodes of the pair being separately a different one of p-doped and n-doped, the plurality of nanowires comprising an intrinsic i region of the p-i-n junction.

A nano-wire-based photonic device array comprising:

• an outer electrode having an interconnected pattern of cells on a horizontal substrate;
• a plurality of inner electrodes coaxially arranged with the outer electrode one per cell, the inner electrodes being separated from the outer electrode in the cells by respective circumferential gaps, the outer electrode and the inner electrodes having vertical extents relative to the horizontal substrate;
• a plurality of nanowires chaotically emanating from the inner electrodes, the nanowires connecting across the respective circumferential gaps to the outer electrode of the cells, the nanowires being randomly located along the vertical extents;
• and
• a semiconductor junction between the inner electrodes and the outer electrode of the cells.