Photo-induced oxidation and amorphization of trigonal tellurium: A means to engineer hybrid nanostructures and explore glass structure under spatial confinement

Abstract

Controlled photo-induced oxidation and amorphization of elemental trigonal tellurium are achieved by laser irradiation at optical wavelengths. These processes are monitored in situ by time-resolved Raman scattering and ex situ by electron microscopies. Ultrathin TeO2 films form on Te surfaces, as a result of irradiation, with an interface layer of amorphous Te intervening between them. It is shown that irradiation, apart from enabling the controllable transformation of bulk Te to one-dimensional nanostructures, such as Te nanotubes and hybrid core-Te/sheath-TeO2 nanowires, causes also a series of light-driven (athermal) phase transitions involving the crystallization of the amorphous TeO2 layers and its transformation to a multiplicity of crystalline phases including the γ-, β-, and α-TeO2 crystalline phases. The kinetics of the above photo-induced processes is investigated by Raman scattering at various laser fluences revealing exponential and non-exponential kinetics at low and high fluence, respectively. In addition, the formation of ultrathin (less than 10 nm) layers of amorphous TeO2 offers the possibility to explore structural transitions in 2D glasses by observing changes in the short- and medium-range structural order induced by spatial confinement.