The Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor InSb Nanoparticles by Solvothermal Reduction Reactions
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The Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor InSb Nanoparticles by Solvothermal Reduction Reactions Monica De Lezaeta, Margaret Lam, Shira Black, Baohe Chang, and Bonnie Gersten Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY 11367, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT InSb has a large carrier mobility and a high sensitivity in the infrared wavelength range (3-5 µm), which makes it a good quantum dot material for infrared (IR) detectors. In this study, the synthesis of the nanocrystalline III-V semiconductor indium antimonide (InSb) by solvothermal reduction methods was investigated. InSb was synthesized by using indium (III) chloride and antimony (III) chloride as the starting materials and sodium borohydride as the reducing agent. Pure-phase InSb was successfully produced with diethylenetriamine and tetraethylenepentamine as the solvents and a Schlenk line apparatus as the reaction vessel. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to verify the successful production of InSb and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to determine the particle size and shape of the product. In the future, growth kinetics of the particles will be investigated as they relate to their spectroscopic quantum confinement effects. INTRODUCTION Quantum dots are structures capable of confining electron and/or hole carriers in three dimensions, allowing for zero degrees of freedom and creating discrete as opposed to continuous atom-like levels in their density of states. They are therefore applied to numerous device applications, such as lasers, optical cut off filters, fast optical switches, and quantum dot infrared photodetectors [1-3]. By changing the size of the quantum dot, the effective band gap is changed, thereby enabling the band gap for the emission and absorption spectra to be tunable, a signature of quantum confinement [4]. III-V small band gap materials are of interest due to their large carrier mobility, high sensitivity in the infrared wavelength range (3-5µ) and their applications as a substrate material for IR detectors [5]. Indium antimonide (InSb), one of the III–V binary semiconductors, has drawn significant attraction over the last several years. Due to its very low effective electron mass and high mobility, it is an important candidate in high speed applications in transistors and other devices [6, 7]. Since it has the smallest bandgap among other III–V binaries, measuring 0.17 eV at 300K that corresponds to IR wavelength, it is useful as an infrared detector and filter [8]. It also has a relatively large Bohr exciton diameter (138 nm) so that it could display strong confinement effects even with particle sizes as large as 138 nm in diameter [9]. III-V quantum dot compounds are infrequently produced via solution chemistry methods due to the difficulties in obtaining defect free particles with a narrow distribution in particle size and shape. Preparing InSb, by solution chemistry is more difficult than the preparation of II-VI quantum compounds, such as CdSe due to InSb’s increased covalency, which is not compa
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