Dopant induced diameter tuning of Mn-doped CdTe nanorods in aqueous solution

Abstract

High quality Mn-doped CdTe nanorods with uniform diameter were synthesized in aqueous phase by spontaneous self-organization of Mn-doped CdTe nanoparticles into nanorods. The diameter of the CdTe nanorods increased gradually from 4.1 to 10.2 nm for 0–4.2% Mn incorporations. The intermediate step in the nanorod growth was found to be double or triple chain aggregation. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the Mn doped samples retained the same crystal structure as the CdTe nanocrystals, indicating no second phase formation for Mn ion. XPS, ICP-AES and ESR data demonstrate successful incorporation of Mn ions in CdTe nanorods. Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurements reveal that all of these nanocrystals exhibited ferromagnetic behavior, with a coercive field (H_c) of 2.6 kOe.