Fabrication of silicon carbide nanoparticles using picosecond pulsed laser ablation in acetone with characterizations from TEM and XRD

Takumu Yamada,Jun Ishihara,Fumisato Araki,Kensuke Miyajima

doi:10.1063/1.5121756

Abstract

We fabricated SiC nanoparticles (NPs) using a laser ablation method in acetone with a picosecond pulsed laser and characterized the resulting sizes, shapes, and crystal structures using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). We revealed two formation processes for the SiC NPs. The main process was the formation of spherical NPs with diameters primarily less than 10 nm. The crystal structure was 3C-SiC, which did not depend on a target polytype. Therefore, it is concluded that these NPs are grown from atomic molecules that disassociate from targets in the ablation process. As a result of a Rietbelt analysis of the XRD patterns, we clearly found that almost all NPs were single crystals. In addition, a stacking fault in the crystal was observed in the TEM image, which affects the XRD pattern. The other process was the formation of NPs with diameters from 30 to 80 nm with crystal structures that were the same as the targets. This indicates that these NPs were generated as fragments of the target. Our findings are useful for applications of SiC NPs to selectively control their size, shape, and crystal structure using laser ablation.

Highlights

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap semiconductor that is used in power electronic devices that operates at high temperatures and frequencies due to its excellent properties, such as a high-breakdown electric field, high saturation drift velocity, and high thermal conductivity.[1,2,3]
It has been reported that the size distribution of NPs fabricated using pulsed laser ablation in a liquid follows a log-normal distribution.[30]
Spherical NPs with diameters less than 10 nm were generated from atomic molecules decomposed from the target

Summary

Introduction

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap semiconductor that is used in power electronic devices that operates at high temperatures and frequencies due to its excellent properties, such as a high-breakdown electric field, high saturation drift velocity, and high thermal conductivity.[1,2,3] On the other hand, for optical devices, which have important applications in addition to electronic devices, the wide bandgap of SiC is attractive but has not yet been utilized because it is an indirect bandgap. Recent studies have illustrated luminescence from color centers in SiC in a spectral range from red to near-infrared.[9–12] there are reports that silicon defects in SiC have a ground state spin at room temperature.[12–14] This bright luminescence and wavelength selectivity in addition to the high chemical and thermal stabilities of bulk

Methods

Results

Conclusion