| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Topical Conference | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN-ThP |
| Session: | Energy Frontiers Topical Conference Poster Session |
| Presenter: | R. Chaukulkar, Colorado School of Mines |
| Authors: | R. Chaukulkar, Colorado School of Mines B.N. Jariwala, Colorado School of Mines S. Weeks, Colorado School of Mines N.J. Kramer, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands S. Agarwal, Colorado School of Mines |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Si nanocrystals (NCs) (size <5nm) are generating an increased interest as a material to be used in third generation photovoltaics (PVs) owing to their size-dependent band gap, visible photoluminescence and multiple exciton generation (MEG). Synthesis of both liquid and gas phase NCs have been reported in the literature. We synthesize the Si NCs using a capacitively-coupled SiH4/Ar plasma generated using radio-frequency power. The Si NCs are characterized using in situ attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and ex situ techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The size of the NCs can be controlled by varying the residence time in the plasma volume. The residence time is adjusted to attain a particle size of 5nm collected on a grid. The crystallinity of the NCs depends on the amount of rf power put in the plasma. By varying the input rf power we were successful in demonstrating the transition from amorphous to crystalline nanoparticles using X-ray diffraction and TEM.