TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The support is selected to withstand II-VI metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy growth temperatures. The method further comprises depositing a low energy surface film on the support, where the low energy surface film includes silicon oxide or aluminum oxide. The step (b) comprises thermal evaporation or sputtering of the metal alloy. The step (c) is carried out at a pressure of 50-760 torr, where the support is heated to 260-350 degrees C. The step (c) further comprises forming each nanowire to include at least one discrete heterostructure unit whose II-VI material composition is either uniform or varies smoothly over its length, where the length of the discrete heterostructure unit is less than 10 nm. The method comprises sequentially delivering II-VI semiconductor precursors to cause these materials to deposit and grow the nanowires containing the discrete heterostructure unit. In the method, a dopant is provided in step (c) which modifies the conductivity of the nanowires, where the dopant is n-type (aluminum, indium, gallium, chlorine, bromine or iodine) or p-type (nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, lithium, copper or lithium nitride). The step (c) further includes at least two column II precursors and at least two column VI precursors. Preferred Components: The support includes glass, semiconductor substrates, metal foils, or high temperature plastics. The metal alloy is gold-tin, where the volume ratio of gold to tin is 1:5 to 5:1. The molar ratio of column VI precursor to column II precursor is 1:1 to 4:1. The II-VI semiconductor precursors include diethylzinc, dimethyl cadmium, tert-butyl selenide, tert-butyl sulfide, di-isopropyl telluride or bis(methyl- eta 5-cyclopentadienyl)magnesium. The diameter and length of each nanowire is less than 500 nm (preferably less than 100 nm) and greater than 500 nm (preferably greater than 2 microns). EXAMPLE - A silicon substrate was degreased in a sonicator using acetone, methanol and water. The substrate was placed in a dry thermal oxide furnace where a layer of oxide is formed on the surface. The substrate was then placed in a thermal evaporator, and gold and tin were thermally evaporated to produce gold and tin layers (of thickness 1 nm and 3 nm respectively) on the substrate. Then diethylzinc and tert-butyl selenide were allowed to strike the surface of the substrate at a ratio of 1:3.6 using a carrier gas (helium-hydrogen). The substrate was heated to 320 degrees C to produce resultant zinc-selenium nanowires.