Noble gas nanocrystals in multiporous confinement: Size dependence of structure

Abstract

High energy electron diffraction experiments performed on neon and argon clusters formed in nanoporous confinement of amorphous carbon films are compared with calculations made for multiply twinned particles such as icosahedra (ico) and decahedra (dec) with a five-fold symmetry as well as face-centered cubic and hexagonal close-packed particles. The analysis was based on the comparison of precise experimental and calculated diffracted intensities with the help of the R (reliability)-factor minimization procedure. We have revealed highly reproducible discrete distribution functions of sizes and applied structures. The comparison with energy calculations made for different structures confirmed that both ico and dec clusters were basically found in the size intervals predicted in the theory. The temperature related effects in the deposition and annealing processes are revealed and discussed.