Silicon nanoparticles from pulsed laser ablation

Abstract

The research on silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) has been considerably attractive for the scientist in the last decades due to the SiNCs' significant size-dependent optical properties, and their potential for stimulated emission (Pavesi et al. 2000). The bright photoluminescence (PL) properties of SiNCs is mainly observed in visible regions of the spectrum (Wolkin et al. 1999). On the other hand, blue-luminescent SiNCs would provide a decrease in free carrier absorption and an increase in the stimulated emission (Švrček et al. 2006). These excellent properties and their biocompatible nature make SiNCs a promising candidate for applications such as light-emitting devices or energy sources, in biomedicine and photodynamic therapy (Walters et al. 2005; Stupca et al. 2007; Wang et al. 2008). Moreover, it was suggested that the production of SiNCs in colloidal suspension provides considerable advantages in optoelectronics applications due to the increased stimulated emission process (Luterova et al. 2016). A number of chemical (Zhang et al. 2007; Rosso-Vasic et al. 2009) and physical (Knipping et al. 2004; Khang and Lee 2010) methods were developed for the production of SiNCs. Chemical methods were much more favorable due to their potential for controlling both the particle size and surface properties (Intartaglia et al. 2011; Intartaglia et al. 2012a). These chemical methods included reduction reactions (