High electron mobility in thin films formed via supersonic impact deposition of nanocrystals synthesized in nonthermal plasmas

Thimsen, Elijah; Johnson, Melissa; Zhang, Xin; Wagner, Andrew J.; Mkhoyan, K. Andre; Kortshagen, Uwe; Aydil, Eray S.

doi:10.1038/ncomms6822

Cited by 82 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…It has been demonstrated that the ALD of Al 2 O 3 is an effective means to passivate defects in films formed by semiconductor NCs such as ZnO NCs, PbSe NCs, PbS NCs, and CdSe NCs . When the Ge‐NC films are treated with the ALD of Al 2 O 3 , the electrical conductivity of the Ge‐NC films increases across all doping levels (Figure a–e).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Structures, Oxidation, and Charge Transport of Phosphorus‐Doped Germanium Nanocrystals

Gao

Wang

et al. 2016

Part & Part Syst Charact

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The doping of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) is crucial for the optimization of the performance of devices based on them. In contrast to recent progress on the doping of compound semiconductor NCs and silicon NCs, the doping of germanium (Ge) NCs has lagged behind. Here it is shown that Ge NCs can be doped with phosphorus (P) during synthesis by a nonthermal plasma. It is found that there are more P atoms in the NC near‐surface region than in the NC core. P doping modifies the surface state of Ge NCs. Compressive strain can be incuced in Ge NCs by P which can explain the P‐doping‐enhanced oxidation resistance of Ge NCs. Stable dispersions of P‐doped Ge NCs in acetonitrile can be cast to produce films for field‐effect transistors (FETs). FET analysis shows that the electrical conductivity and electron mobility of a Ge‐NC film increase with the increase of the P doping level, although the electrical activation efficiency of P in the Ge‐NC film is low. Finally, atomic layer deposition of aluminum oxide at the surface of P‐doped Ge NCs is shown to improve the performance of the FETs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Structures, Oxidation, and Charge Transport of Phosphorus‐Doped Germanium Nanocrystals

Gao

Wang

et al. 2016

Part & Part Syst Charact

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“…However, these techniques suffer from numerous disadvantages including complex and time consuming steps, high temperatures, inert atmosphere, expensive source materials, toxic organic solvents, and surfactants . Furthermore, the control of the resulting morphology, crystallinity, and agglomeration of the nanostructures is a significant challenge which demands additional cleaning steps to remove undesired by‐products and chemical impurities or residues . The presence of surfactant or ligand chemistries is essential for minimizing particle coalescence and agglomeration during standard colloid synthesis; however, such chemistries impact significantly on the resultant nanoparticle optoelectronic properties and restrict the opportunity for bandgap tuning .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the control of the resulting morphology, crystallinity, and agglomeration of the nanostructures is a significant challenge which demands additional cleaning steps to remove undesired by‐products and chemical impurities or residues . The presence of surfactant or ligand chemistries is essential for minimizing particle coalescence and agglomeration during standard colloid synthesis; however, such chemistries impact significantly on the resultant nanoparticle optoelectronic properties and restrict the opportunity for bandgap tuning . Synthesis of non‐agglomerated and pure CuO nanostructures is imperative for their successful integration in application devices, and therefore, developing an alternative, cheap, and environmentally friendly synthesis method is highly desirable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra‐small CuO nanoparticles with tailored energy‐band diagram synthesized by a hybrid plasma‐liquid process

Velusamy

Liguori

Macías-Montero

et al. 2017

Plasma Processes & Polymers

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CuO is a versatile p-type material for energy applications capable of imparting diverse functionalities by manipulating its band-energy diagram. We present ultrasmall quantum confined cupric oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) synthesized via a simple one-step environmentally friendly atmospheric pressure microplasma synthesis process. The proposed method, based on the use of a hybrid plasma-liquid cell, enables the synthesis of CuO NPs directly from solid metal copper in ethanol with neither surfactants nor reducing agents. CuO NPs films are then used for the first time in all-inorganic third generation solar cell devices demonstrating highly effective functionalities as blocking layer. K E Y W O R D Sband structure, cupric oxide quantum dots, one step-green synthesis, quantum dots/inorganic solar cells | INTRODUCTIONTransition metal oxides, due to their inertness, stability, raw material abundance, and low-cost, are highly desirable materials for many applications, for example, solar cells, supercapacitors, light emitting diodes, photodetectors, field effect transistors, batteries and bio and gas sensors, among others. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Furthermore, as with other materials, at the nanoscale, metal-oxides can present interesting, important and tunable size-dependent optoelectronic properties. [7,11,12] Metal-oxides are generally characterized by very wide bandgaps, whereas CuO is a p-type low bandgap (∼1.2 eV in bulk form) and nontoxic material. [13][14][15][16][17][18] The possibility of manipulating the CuO bandgap, through quantum confinement, from 1.2 (bulk) to >2 eV [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] is an exciting opportunity as it would make CuO a highly versatile and attractive material for a range ofThe copyright line for this article was changed on 20 April, 2017 after original online publication.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. applications; for instance, it would be possible to use CuO nanoparticles with tunable properties as absorber or transport/ blocking layers in photovoltaic devices.Various physical, chemical, and physicochemical techniques have been employed for synthesizing CuO nanostructures with varying size and shape. [16,18,20,23,24] However, these techniques suffer from numerous disadvantages including complex and time consuming steps, high temperatures, inert atmosphere, expensive source materials, toxic organic solvents, and surfactants. [23,25,26] Furthermore, the control of the resulting morphology, crystallinity, and agglomeration of the nanostructures is a significant challenge which demands additional cleaning steps to remove undesired by-products and chemical impurities or residues. [23,[26][27][28][29] The presence of surfactant or ligand chemistries is essential for minimizing particle coalescence and agglomeration during standard colloid synthesis; however, such chemistries impact significantly on the res...

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“…Intriguing combinations of one materials for the nanocrystal phase with another material for the matrix phase can be envisioned. One example was recently presented by Thimsen et al [52], who deposited zinc oxide nanocrystal films at rates of 500 nm in 30 s through hypersonic impaction and then infilled interparticle spaces with alumina through atomic layer deposition. The alumina matrix effectively removed trap states on the ZnO nanocrystal surfaces, resulting in very high conductivities of the ZnO nanocrystal films with mobilities up to 3 cm 2 /V s.…”

Section: Hybrid Materialsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Nonthermal Plasma Synthesis of Nanocrystals: Fundamentals, Applications, and Future Research Needs

Kortshagen

2015

Plasma Chem Plasma Process

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Nonthermal plasma synthesis has emerged as a viable alternative to nanocrystal synthesis in the liquid phase or by other gas phase based methods. The nonequilibrium environment containing free charge carriers enables the synthesis of nanocrystals with excellent crystallinity and narrow size distributions. This paper reviews the fundamental mechanisms involved in the synthesis of nanocrystals with nonthermal plasmas. It discusses the luminescent properties of plasma-produced silicon nanocrystals and their application in devices such as light emitting diodes. The ability of plasma synthesis to generate doped nanocrystals is a particularly appealing attribute. We present boron and phosphorous doped silicon nanocrystals and review their applications as near infrared plasmonic materials. Finally, the author presents his view of some important research needs in the area of nonthermal plasma synthesis of nanocrystals.

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High electron mobility in thin films formed via supersonic impact deposition of nanocrystals synthesized in nonthermal plasmas

Cited by 82 publications

References 34 publications

Structures, Oxidation, and Charge Transport of Phosphorus‐Doped Germanium Nanocrystals

Structures, Oxidation, and Charge Transport of Phosphorus‐Doped Germanium Nanocrystals

Ultra‐small CuO nanoparticles with tailored energy‐band diagram synthesized by a hybrid plasma‐liquid process

Nonthermal Plasma Synthesis of Nanocrystals: Fundamentals, Applications, and Future Research Needs

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