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Silicon Nanoparticle Synthesis Using Constricted Mode Capacitive Silane Plasma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

A. Bapat,
Ying Dong,
C. R. Perrey,
C. B. Carter,
S.A. Campbell and
U. Kortshagen
A. Bapat
Affiliation:
Depatment of Mechanical Engineering The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Ying Dong
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
C. R. Perrey
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
C. B. Carter
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
S.A. Campbell
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
U. Kortshagen
Affiliation:
Depatment of Mechanical Engineering The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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Abstract

Crystalline semiconductor nanoparticles are of interest for a variety of electronic and opto-electronic applications. We report experimental studies of the synthesis and characterization of crystalline silicon nanoparticles using a constricted-mode capacitive RF plasma in continua- tion of results reported earlier from an RF inductively coupled plasma [1]. The constricted-mode discharge is based on a thermal plasma instability yielding a high-density plasma filament, which rotates at a high frequency. Silane is dissociated, leading to particle nucleation and growth. Particles are extracted by passing the particle-laden gas through an orifice to form a beam and col- lected by inertial impaction.

We are able to reproducibly synthesize highly oriented freestanding single-crystal silicon nanoparticles. Monodisperse particle size distributions centered at a 35nm particle diameter with a geometric standard deviation of 1.3 are obtained. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies show uniformly shaped cubic particles. Selected-area electron diffraction patterns indi- cate the particles have the diamond-cubic silicon structure. To study the electrical properties of these particles, metal-semiconductor-metal structures were fabricated and analyzed.

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