ELECTROCHEMICAL FABRICATION OF CDS NANOWIRE ARRAYS IN POROUS ANODIC ALUMINUM-OXIDE TEMPLATES

A technique is described for fabricating arrays of uniform CdS nanowir es with lengths up to 1 mu m and diameters as small as 9 nm by electro chemically depositing the semiconductor directly into the pores of ano dic aluminum oxide films from an electrolyte containing Cd2+ and S in dimethyl sulfoxide. The nanowire arrays were characterized by powder X -ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy. The deposited material is found to be hexagonal CdS with the crystallographic c-axis prefere ntially oriented along the length of the pore. The effects of annealin g on the crystallinity of the deposited semiconductor were investigate d by XRD and resonance Raman spectroscopy. The deposition technique is , in principle, generalizable as a means of fabricating nanowires of a wide range of semiconductors.