Site-specific growth of CdS nanostructures

The authors report the successful site-specific deposition of cadmium sulfide (CdS) using a focused electron beam and a liquid-phase solution of cadmium salts and thiourea as the primary reagents. Nanostructures with a minimum feature size of 84 nm are patterned with little to no extraneous deposition. The composition and phase of the CdS nanostructures is investigated by energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Critically, these results demonstrate one-step patterning of a semiconducting material from a multi-reagent liquid precursor.