Abstract
This paper discusses the physical mechanisms governing the nucleation and growth of Si nanocrystals embedded in an amorphous matrix. Reactive pulsed laser deposition combined with a postannealing treatment is shown to be a flexible approach to synthesize Si nanocrystals. This technique ensures an excellent control of Si nanocrystal size by varying the oxygen pressure. By correlating nanocrystal size (measured by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy) with the nonoxidized Si volume fraction (determined by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy), it is found that the formation of nanocrystals follows classical nucleation theory, whereby the average distance between nuclei centers remains constant.
- Received 7 April 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.74.075334
©2006 American Physical Society