It is easy to control the growth rate and avoid materials from pollution as a result of the adjustable frequency of pulsed laser and the good directivity of laser-ablated plasma [13, 14]. In our previous work, the CdS nanoneedles have been grown successfully using the PLD method [15] and the growth modes of vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) and vapor-solid (VS) have been suggested [15, 16]. In this article, the effects of the substrate temperature and the laser find more pulse energy on the growth of CdS nanoneedles were studied in detail. Both the

VLS and VS growth modes of CdS nanoneedles were further confirmed experimentally. The transformation from VLS to VS growth modes along with the growth of the CdS nanoneedles was discussed. Methods The CdS nanoneedles were deposited on Si(100) substrates using Ni as catalysts by a PLD method. The experimental setup mainly consists of a Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 532 nm and a deposition chamber with rotating multitargets and a base pressure of 10-3 Pa. High-purity Ni and hot-pressed CdS targets (purchased from Beijing Founde Star Science & Technology Co., Ltd.) with diameter and thickness of 1.5 and 0.5 cm, respectively, were used as sources of precursors of Ni catalyst layer and RG7420 cost CdS nanoneedles. Prior to the deposition, substrates were ultrasonically

cleaned in acetone and ethanol, etched in HF solution and rinsed in deionized water, successively. To prepare the CdS nanoneedles, there were two steps involved. Firstly, Ni catalysts were deposited on the substrates by PLD with a laser pulse energy of 50 mJ and a repetition rate of 5 Hz for 10 min (without substrate heating). Secondly, the CdS nanoneedles were grown by PLD at different substrate Janus kinase (JAK) temperatures of 200°C to 500°C, different laser pulse energy of 50 to 80 mJ and a repetition rate of 10 Hz for 30 min. In order to understand the growth mechanism of the CdS nanoneedles, the morphologies of the prepared Ni catalyst-covered

substrates were observed after annealing 5 min at the different substrate temperatures of 200°C to 500°C. The morphology of all the samples was examined by field emission scanning www.selleckchem.com/products/dorsomorphin-2hcl.html electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The crystalline structures of the CdS nanoneedles were characterized by selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The composition of the CdS nanoneedles was analyzed by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) fitted on the TEM. Results and discussion It has been suggested that the CdS nanoneedles grown by PLD have two main growth modes of VS and VLS (as shown in Figure 1) [15–18]. For the both growth modes, catalyst plays the role of promoting the formation of the crystal nucleus. In the VS growth mode [15, 16], the substrate temperature usually is not much high, and the catalyst grains are stable on the substrates.