Low-temperature synthesis of photoconducting CdTe nanotetrapods

We show that CdTe nanotetrapods are formed by two distinct growth regimes depending on the reaction temperature. At a low temperature (180 °C) the combination of slow reaction kinetics and Ostwald ripening results in a novel pathway for the formation of a tetrapodal morphology. We also report, to the best of our knowledge, the first direct evaluation of the photoconductivity of CdTe nanotetrapods by employing gold ‘nanogap’ electrodes that were fabricated in-house. Our preliminary findings include I–V responses showing current enhancement, due to illumination, of up to 100 times.