Heterojunctions of CuInSe2 (CIS) nanowires with cadmium sulfide (CdS) were fabricated demonstrating for the first time, vertically aligned nanowires of CIS in the conventional Mo/CIS/CdS stack. These devices were studied for their material and electrical characteristics to provide a better understanding of the transport phenomena governing the operation of heterojunctions involving CIS nanowires. Removal of several key bottlenecks was crucial in achieving this. For example, it was found that to fabricate alumina membranes on molybdenum substrates, a thin interlayer of tungsten had to be inserted. A qualitative model was proposed to explain the difficulty in fabricating anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes directly on Mo. Experimental results were used to corroborate this model. Subsequently, a general procedure to use any material that can be deposited using sputtering or evaporation as a back contact for nanowires grown using AAO templates was developed. Experimental work to demonstrate this by transferring thin AAO templates onto flexible Polyimide (PI) substrates was performed. This pattern transfer approach opens doors for a wide variety of applications on almost any substrate. Any material that can be deposited by physical means can then be used as a back contact. Electron-beam induced deposition using a liquid precursor (LP-EBID) was used to selectively grow preconceived patterns of compound semiconductor (CdS) nanoparticles. Stoichiometric CdS nanoparticle patterns were grown successfully using this method. They were structurally and optically characterized indicating high purity deposits. This approach is promising because it marries the precision of e-beam lithography with the versatility of solution based deposition methods.