Semiconductor vapor-liquid-solid wires have been grown for over 48 years and remain a topic of active interest today. In my doctoral research I synthesized silicon and germanium wires via the vapor-liquid-solid method, studied their material properties and applied them to systems. The main application targeted was photovoltaic cells. Synthesis methods were developed and optimized to create materials suitable in principle for this engineering goal. Photovoltaic cells were constructed and their performance measured. Material properties of the vapor-liquid-solid materials were measured to obtain the needed parameters to further understand the design and practical limits of photovoltaic cells constructed from the materials. In addition to photovoltaics vapor-liquid-solid wires were employed as scanned probes. Properties unique to vapor-liquidsolid synthesis were used to create probes en-masse that would be difficult or costly to fabricate by other means.