Cadmium sulfur ribbons were produced on an Au-coated Si substrate by chemical vapor deposition of CdS powder. The growth direction of the ribbons was [0 1 1 0]. Asymmetric growth had occurred on the +/-(0 0 0 1) planes. Two types of ribbons were found. In one type, saw-tooth structure was rooted on the active Cd-terminated (0 0 0 1) surface while the inert S-terminated (0 0 0 1) surface remained flat. In the second type, finer finger/saw-tooth pairs were found on one side, nano-finger-like structure was on the other. The nano-fingers were grown on some high-energy planes between the S-terminated (0 0 0 1) plane and the +/-(2 1 1 0) facets. This lateral asymmetric growth behavior was due to surface polarization. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.