Rhenium disulfide (ReS₂) is best known as a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide. However, it could potentially also be used as a 1D material. Xianquan Meng, Wuhan University and Hubei Nuclear Solid Physics Key Laboratory, China, and colleagues have synthesized 1D single-crystal ReS₂ nanowires using chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

The researchers used these nanowires as the active layer in a photodetector. To create the nanostructured photodetector, the team used conductive silver nanowires as the source and drain electrodes of the device and ReS₂ nanowires as the active layer between these two contacts.

The nanowire-based photodetector has an excellent performance, with a high photoresistivity of 5.08·10⁵, a high external quantum efficiency of 1.07·10⁶, and the highest specific detectivity of ReS₂ photodetectors to date, with a value of 6.1·10¹⁵.

• Chemical vapor deposition growth of ReS₂ nanowires for high-performance nanostructured photodetector,
  Qinwei An, Yang Liu, Renjie Jiang, Xianquan Meng,
  Nanoscale 2018.
  https://doi.org/10.1039/c8nr04143a