Fabrication of single crystalline cadmium nanowires by a facile low temperature vapor phase method

Single-crystalline cadmium nanowires were successfully fabricated by vaporization of cadmiurr metal powders in a horizontal quartz tube furnace at 250 °C. The vaporization was carried out foi 30 minutes and yielded nanowires of diameters of 80 to 250 nm and lengths up to several tens of microns. The nanowires were deposited on a Si (111) substrate kept at the lower temperature zone (150-175 °C) of the furnace. When the deposition temperature was lower than this, hexagona nanodisks were produced. The possible mechanism for the formation of the obtained nanostructures is discussed.