Characterization of nanoparticles through medium-energy ion scattering

Abstract

In this work we review the use of the medium-energy ion scattering ͑MEIS͒ technique to characterize nanostructures at the surface of a substrate. We discuss here how the determination of shape and size distribution of the nanoparticles is influenced by the energy loss at the backscattering collision, which leads to an asymmetrical energy-loss line shape. We show that the use of a Gaussian line shape may lead to important misinterpretations of a MEIS spectrum for nanoparticles smaller than 5 nm. The results are compared to measurements of gold nanoparticles adsorbed on a multilayered film of weak polyelectrolyte.

The potential of Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry for composition analysis of colloidal nanocrystals

“…Due to these properties, several recent studies explored and used the potential of elastic scattering -mainly the Medium-Energy Ion Scattering (MEIS) methodology -for analysis of colloidal nanocrystals [5], [6], [7]. As many of these studies demonstrate, enhanced scattering cross sections, and thus also lower sample material amounts necessary for the analysis can be achieved e.g.…”

Neutralization and wake effects on the Coulomb explosion of swiftH2+ions traversing thin films

“…2 corresponds to the simulations of the energy spectrum generated by the POWERMEIS code for atomic ions [16], which essentially simulates the energy-loss spectrum according to the backscattering yield Y (E) modeled as A typical 2D MEIS spectrum obtained for 175 keV/u t 2 H 2 + projectiles striking the TiO 2 film is depicted in Fig. 1.…”

Structural characterization of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots using medium energy ion scattering

“…The one-dimensional energy spectra obtained (2012) are analyzed by the PowerMeis code. 6 Contrary to other codes, 11 PowerMeis simulates the energy spectra of the backscattered particles by taking into account the full structure of the QDs: shape, composition, size distribution, and areal density. The QD structure is designed and stored in a 3D matrix, which is used as input to perform the full 3D Monte-Carlo integration.…”

“…5 For that reason, MEIS has been recently used for nanostructures characterization, to determine size distribution of nanoparticles, geometric shapes, composition, stoichiometry and, its most promising application, elemental distribution inside the QDs, which is hardly achieved by any other analytical technique. [6][7][8] In this work, we studied sizes and elemental distribution of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots, 9 using MEIS in connection with other characterization techniques. CdSe/ZnS QDs are very suitable for MEIS analysis, since all elements correspond to well separated peaks in the energy spectrum when a few hundred keV He ions are used.…”

“…Finally, the full analysis of the MEIS spectra in different scattering angles using the simulation software PowerMeis (Ref. 6) allows the determination of Cd and Se distributions inside the QDs.…”