US Patent 8198622 - Nanoparticle doped nanowires

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8198622.html

This patent from Panasonic teaches a way to engineer the light emission or detection properties of semiconductor nanowires by integrating nanoparticle material into the nanowire structure. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanowire comprising:

a nanowire body made of a first semiconductor material which contains a plurality of elements; and

a plurality of nanoparticles made of a second semiconductor material which contains at least one of the plurality of elements and is different from the first semiconductor material, the plurality of nanoparticles being located at least one of an interior and a surface of the nanowire body.