Over the last two decades there has been a dramatic increase in research activities related to semiconductor nanowires (NWs) due to their exciting prospects for implementation of novel high-performance electronics and photonics compatible with main-stream silicon technology.  In this talk, I will give an overview of our research efforts on infrared photodetectors based on InP/InAsP semiconductor NWs. I will discuss growth, processing and characterization of both single NW devices and large square millimeter array devices comprising millions of NWs connected in parallel. The electrical data generally display excellent rectifying behavior with small leakage currents. From optical measurements, combined with modeling, we conclude that the photocurrent generation depends strongly on the geometry and doping of the NW devices. Properly designed, the absorption of IR radiation in array devices can be significantly enhanced by nanophotonic resonances induced by the geometry and spatially matched to the position of the embedded p-n junctions in the NWs yielding high-efficiency photovoltaics. We have also carried out in-depth studies of InP NW arrays with multiple enclosed axial InAsP quantum wells for broadband and thermal imaging applications. Finally, I will discuss our recent research efforts targeting single InP/InAsP NW avalanche photodetectors with separate absorption and multiplication regions. The presented photodetectors can potentially be grown on cheap silicon substrates due to the small footprint of the NWs. Successfully developed, novel low-cost and high-performance detector families for optical communication, thermal imaging and solar cell applications can be realized.