Photoluminescence study of optically trapped InP semiconductor nanowires

We report on the optical characterisation of single indium phosphide (InP) semiconductor nanowires trapped in a gradient force optical tweezers. Nanowires studies were of zinc blende, wurtzite or mixed phase crystal poly-types and ranged in length from 1 to 10 μm. Our results show that the band-edge emission from the nanowires trapped in solution shows a quenching of the initial intensity with a characteristic time scale of a few seconds. We observe stronger quenching effects in wurtzite nanowires which lead to a modification of the spectral shape in mixed phase nanowires.