Influence of the preparation conditions in the morphology and photoluminescence of CdS nanowires

In this work, CdS nanowires (NWs) were prepared by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method using Au catalytic nanoparticles (NPs) deposited on different substrates. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques (SEM, TEM) allowed observing NWs with different morphologies: long NWs with lengths of several microns, networks and pointed NWs. Nanotubes were also observed when CdS substrates were used. Possible growth mechanisms are considered for each different morphology. NWs also shown very brilliant photo-luminescence (PL), even at RT. PL spectra is studied as a function of temperature to determine their properties and the origin of the different peaks.