Plasma enhanced Mn incorporation in CdS nanostructures

Single crystalline CdS nanowires and nanobelts with Mn incorporation were obtained by thermal and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The XRD patterns confirmed the incorporation of Mn into CdS lattice in all products. The introduction of plasma significantly increased the Mn concentration in the CdS nanostructure and resulted in a morphology evolution from nanowires to nanobelts, which could be attributed to the activated species in gas phase produced by plasma. The d-d (4T1 to 6A1) emission of Mn2+ was found to be significantly enhanced in the plasma prepared samples, which was mainly due to the plasma enhancement. The results demonstrated plasma as an effective approach to control the incorporating concentration and morphology for nanostructures grown from the vapor phase.