Lizunova AA, Borisov VI, Malo D, Musaev AG, Kameneva EI, Efimov AA, Volkov IA, Buchnev AI, Shuklov IA, Ivanov VV. Spark Discharge Synthesis and Characterization of Ge/Sn Janus Nanoparticles.
NANOMATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023;
13:nano13101701. [PMID:
37242117 DOI:
10.3390/nano13101701]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Germanium-tin nanoparticles are promising materials for near- and mid-infrared photonics thanks to their tunable optical properties and compatibility with silicon technology. This work proposes modifying the spark discharge method to produce Ge/Sn aerosol nanoparticles during the simultaneous erosion of germanium and tin electrodes. Since tin and germanium have a significant difference in the potential for electrical erosion, an electrical circuit damped for one period was developed to ensure the synthesis of Ge/Sn nanoparticles consisting of independent germanium and tin crystals of different sizes, with the ratio of the atomic fraction of tin to germanium varying from 0.08 ± 0.03 to 0.24 ± 0.07. We investigated the elemental and phase composition, size, morphology, and Raman and absorbance spectra of the nanoparticles synthesized under different inter-electrode gap voltages and the presence of additional thermal treatment directly in a gas flow at 750 °C. The research shows that the in-flow thermal treatment of aerosol-agglomerated nanoparticles produced special individual bicrystalline Janus Ge/Sn nanoparticles with an average size of 27 nm and a decreasing absorption function with a changing slope at 700 nm.
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