Size-dependent
melting properties of nanometer-sized Indium particles
with size ranging from 25.5 to 68.1 nm were studied by spectroscopic
ellipsometry, and a critical size is found between 42.4 and 44.9 nm.
The melting points of nanometer-sized Indium particles with size larger
than critical size are almost the same as that of bulk indium, while
no clear melting point was found for indium particles with size smaller
than the critical size. A knee point defined as the average melting
point was introduced to characterize the melting of these smaller
size particles, and it depresses with decreasing size. The mechanism
for size dependent melting of indium particles was discussed. This
work shows that spectroscopic ellipsometry is an effective optical
tool for characterizing the melting of nanometer-sized metal particles.
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