4.8 Article

Silicon Nanocrystals at Elevated Temperatures: Retention of Photoluminescence and Diamond Silicon to β-Silicon Carbide Phase Transition

Journal

ACS NANO
Volume 8, Issue 9, Pages 9219-9223

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nn5029967

Keywords

silicon; nanocrystals; photoluminescence; high temperature; phase transition

Funding

  1. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-06CH11357]
  2. National Science Foundation [EAR-1128799, DGE-0824162]
  3. Department of Energy [DE-FG02-94ER14466]
  4. DOE Energy Frontier Research Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics

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We report the photoluminescence (PL) properties of colloidal Si nanocrystals (NCs) up to 800 K and observe PL retention on par with core/shell structures of other compositions. These alkane-terminated Si NCs even emit at temperatures well above previously reported melting points for oxide-embedded particles. Using selected area electron diffraction (SAED), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), liquid drop theory, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we show that melting does not play a role at the temperatures explored experimentally in PL, and we observe a phase change to beta-SiC in the presence of an electron beam. Loss of diffraction peaks (melting) with recovery of diamond-phase silicon upon cooling is observed under inert atmosphere by XRD. We further show that surface passivation by covalently bound ligands endures the experimental temperatures. These findings point to covalently bound organic ligands as a route to the development of NCs for use in high temperature applications, including concentrated solar cells and electrical lighting.

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