Homoepitaxial growth and photoluminescence of self-assembled In-doped ZnS nanowire bundles

Self-assembled In (Indium)-doped ZnS nanowire bundles were synthesized via a thermal evaporation method without using any template. Vapor - solid homoepitaxial growth was found to be the key reason for the formation of close-packed nanowire bundles grown on the surface of microscale sphere-shaped ZnS crystal. X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis demonstrate that the In-doped ZnS nanowires have the cubic structure, and there are numerous stacking faults along the direction. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum shows that the spectrum mainly includes two parts: a weak violet emission band centering at about 380 nm and a strong green emission band centering at about 510 nm. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)