Stoichiometry and doping induced modifications in the properties of Bi12SiO20 single crystals

Preparing Bi12SiO20 crystals at low temperature through nontopotactic solid-state transformation and improving its photocatalytic activity by etching

“…As a member of bismuth-containing oxides, Bi 12 SiO 20 (denoted as BSO) is a conventional photorefractive and electro-optic material for various optical devices including optical data processing, real time intensity inversion, subtraction, image correction with four wave mixing techniques, and so on. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] BSO belongs to the Sillenite group with a pseudo-body centered cubic unit cell and the noncentrosymmetric space group I23. BSO should theoretically be a candidate for potential application in photocatalysis due to its good photoconductivity and suitable band gap energy (2.6 eV).…”

“…BSO single crystals are commonly grown by the Czochralski (Cz) technique or by hydrothermal treatment at 390 C for 20 days. 7,9,10 BSO ceramics are generally prepared via solid-state reaction (SSR) at 650-750 C. BSO powders and nanobers have been synthesized by the molten salt method and electrospinning routes followed by calcination, respectively. 11,12 As for the reported wet chemical methods such as co-precipitation, the sol-gel process and chemical solution decomposition, a calcination step is required to develop full crystallinity and phase purity.…”

Spectral and Morphological Studies of Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films Synthesized by PECVD for Solar Cells

“…Photoluminescence excitation spectra of pure, irradiated and annealed silicon crystals show complicated radiative transitions and irradiation of electrons and thermal annealing in vacuum result in an interrelated change of excitation mechanisms [38]. The photons are absorbed by the silicon nanocrystals and transformed via luminescence mainly to red ones.…”