Indium Antimonide Nanoparticles Synthesized using Inert Gas Condensation Technique.
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Indium Antimonide Nanoparticles Synthesized using Inert Gas Condensation Technique. Sneha G. Pandya1 and Martin E. Kordesch1 1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Nanoparticles (NPs) of Indium Antimonide (InSb) were synthesized using a vapor phase synthesis technique known as Inert Gas Condensation. NPs were directly deposited, at room temperature and under high vacuum, on glass cover slides, TEM grid, 1 inch-square (111) p-type Silicon wafer and Sodium Chloride substrates. XRD study revealed the crystalline behavior of these NPs exhibiting a cubic symmetry with preferred growth direction of (111). The average grain size of the NPs obtained using XRD results and the Debye-Scherrer formula was 25.62 nm. TEM studies showed a bimodal distribution of NPs with average NPs size of 13.70 and 33.20 nm. These values are consistent with the value obtained using XRD. 1:1 composition ratio of In:Sb was confirmed by the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy studies. The band gap of the NPs obtained using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was 0.413 eV at 300 K, which indicates quantum confinement in the band structure of these NPs. INTRODUCTION Indium Antimonide (InSb) is a well-known III-IV semiconductor with one of the smallest band gaps (~ 0.17 eV at 300 K) and highest room-temperature electron mobility (~ 78,000 cm2/(Vs)2). InSb has a very small effective mass for electrons and thus has a large Bohr radius of ~65 nm. All these properties make InSb a very useful candidate for infrared detectors, magnetic sensors, cooling devices, thermoelectric power generation and high-speed field-effect transistors and low power device applications [1-4]. Low dimensional InSb structures show good quantum confinement and various studies have been published on synthesis and characterization of InSb thin films and nano-wires [5-11]. But on the other hand, InSb nanoparticles (NPs) have been rarely studied. The synthesis of these low dimensional InSb structures has been challenging in general and problems like non-uniformity in size of NPs and aggregation of NPs have persisted. Here we present a comparatively straightforward method for synthesis of InSb NPs with reduced aggregation. We have synthesized InSb NPs using a vapor phase technique known as Inert Gas Condensation (IGC). The synthesis process has been described in detail in this paper. NPs were directly deposited on substrates at room temperature. The NPs were characterized using techniques like X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS InSb NPs were synthesized using a vapor phase technique known as Inert gas condensation (IGC). It is a bottom-up process in which individual atoms, ions and molecules are condensed together to form NPs. The schematic of the instrument used in our laboratory can be
seen in figure 1a. Radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering is used as the source to pro
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