The authors report the growth of high density ZnSe/ZnCdSe heterostructure nanowires on oxidized Si substrate. It was found that the as-grown nanowires were tapered with mixture of cubic zinc-blende and hexagonal wurtzite structures. It was also found that photoluminescence intensities observed from these ZnSe/ZnCdSe heterostructure nanowires were much larger than observed from the homogeneous ZnSe nanowires. Furthermore, it was found that activation energies for the nanowires with well widths of 6, 12, 18 and 24 nm were 22, 41, 67 and 129 meV, respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.