Unidirectional alignment of CdSe nanorods

Cadmium selenide nanorods, unique nanostructures which possess bright and up to 100% polarized photoluminescence, now can be arranged unidirectionally in a single line. The method is based on the chemical attachment of nanorods to the surface of a single cleaved semiconductor nanolayer and exploits a combination of wet-chemical and epitaxial growth techniques to produce templated semiconductor nanostructures. The nanotemplate here is a ZnS layer with a thickness less than the diameter of the nanorods. Binding the nanorods to the template, the limited space provokes an enhanced alignment of the rods along the ZnS layer which can be proved by the high polarization degree of the nanorods emission.