Sol-gel derived precursors to Group 14 semiconductor nanocrystals - Convenient materials for enabling nanocrystal-based applications

Abstract

Semiconductor nanocrystals are intriguing because of their electronic, optical, and chemical characteristics. Silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) of sub-5 nm dimension are of particular interest due to their intense photoluminescent response and the promise of linking silicon photonics and electronics. Other related nanomaterials of technological importance include SiC and Ge. The following contribution describes key experimental findings pertaining to synthetic methodology, investigation of nanodomain formation and growth, as determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy for a series of sol-gel derived prepolymers suitable for preparing Group 14 based nanocrystal containing composites. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.