Phonon Confinement (phonon + confinement)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Effects of Phonon Confinement on Anomalous Thermalization, Energy Transfer, and Upconversion in Ln3+ -Doped Gd2O3 Nanotubes

ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 4 2010
Andreia G. Macedo
Abstract There is a growing interest in understanding how size-dependent quantum confinement affects the photoluminescence efficiency, excited-state dynamics, energy-transfer and thermalization phenomena in nanophosphors. For lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped nanocrystals, despite the localized 4f states, confinement effects are induced mostly via electron,phonon interactions. In particular, the anomalous thermalization reported so far for a handful of Ln3+ -doped nanocrystals has been rationalized by the absence of low-frequency phonon modes. This nanoconfinement may further impact on the Ln3+ luminescence dynamics, such as phonon-assisted energy transfer or upconversion processes. Here, intriguing and unprecedented anomalous thermalization in Gd2O3:Eu3+ and Gd2O3:Yb3+,Er3+ nanotubes, exhibiting up to one order of magnitude larger than previously reported for similar materials, is reported. This anomalous thermalization induces unexpected energy transfer from Eu3+C2 to S6 crystallographic sites, at 11,K, and 2H11/2,,,4I15/2 Er3+ upconversion emission; it is interpreted on the basis of the discretization of the phonon density of states, easily tuned by varying the annealing temperature (923,1123,K) in the synthesis procedure, and/or the Ln3+ concentration (0.16,6.60%). [source]


Well-Aligned ZnO Nanowire Arrays Fabricated on Silicon Substrates ,

ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 6 2004
C. Geng
Abstract Arrays of well-aligned single-crystal zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires of uniform diameter and length have been synthesized on a (100) silicon substrate via a simple horizontal double-tube system using chemical vapor transport and condensation method. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations showed that the as-grown nanowires had the single-crystal hexagonal wurtzite structure with detectable defects and a <0002> growth direction. Raman spectra revealed phonon confinement effect when compared with those of ZnO bulk powder, nanoribbons, and nanoparticles. Photoluminescence exhibited strong ultraviolet emission at 3.29,eV under 355,nm excitation and green emission at 2.21,eV under 514.5,nm excitation. No catalyst particles were found at the tip of the nanowires, suggesting that the growth mechanism followed a self-catalyzed and saturated vapor,liquid,solid (VLS) model. Self-alignment of nanowires was attributed to the local balance and steady state of vapor flow at the substrate. The growth technique would be of particular interest for direct integration in the current silicon-technology-based optoelectronic devices. [source]


Low-temperature phase transformation and phonon confinement in one-dimensional Ta2O5 nanorods

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2010
Rupesh S. Devan
The thermochromic phase transformations of one-dimensional Ta2O5 nanorods have been analyzed at elevated temperatures ranging from 80 to 300,K. The nanorods, grown in a large-area high-density array, are 14,22,nm wide and approximately 500,nm long. The array contained ,93.5% of the orthorhombic (,) phase and ,6.5% of the tetragonal (,) phase. Low-temperature X-ray diffraction results showed complex and polymorphic thermochromic phase transformations of the ,(001), ,(101) and ,(103) lattice planes of the nanorods, which incorporate (i) ,-to-, (,,,), (ii) ,,,,, and (iii) ,,, phase transitions. In comparison with the Raman scattering of three-dimensional bulk powder and two-dimensional thin films of Ta2O5, there were concurrent Raman blue- and redshifts in the one-dimensional Ta2O5 nanorods, indicating that the molecular vibrations of the nanorods were confined owing to the reduction of size and dimension. [source]


Raman spectroscopy of optical phonon confinement in nanostructured materials

JOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, Issue 6 2007
Akhilesh K. Arora
Abstract If the medium surrounding a nano-grain does not support the vibrational wavenumbers of a material, the optical and acoustic phonons get confined within the grain of the nanostructured material. This leads to interesting changes in the vibrational spectrum of the nanostructured material as compared to that of the bulk. Absence of periodicity beyond the particle dimension relaxes the zone-centre optical phonon selection rule, causing the Raman spectrum to have contributions also from phonons away from the Brillouin-zone centre. Theoretical models and calculations suggest that the confinement results in asymmetric broadening and shift of the optical phonon Raman line, the magnitude of which depends on the widths of the corresponding phonon dispersion curves. This has been confirmed for zinc oxide nanoparticles. Microscopic lattice dynamical calculations of the phonon amplitude and Raman spectra using the bond-polarizability model suggest a power-law dependence of the peak-shift on the particle size. This article reviews recent results on the Raman spectroscopic investigations of optical phonon confinement in several nanocrystalline semiconductor and ceramic/dielectric materials, including those in selenium, cadmium sulphide, zinc oxide, thorium oxide, and nano-diamond. Resonance Raman scattering from confined optical phonons is also discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Strong anharmonicity and phonon confinement on the lowest-frequency Raman mode of nanocrystalline anatase TiO2

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 7 2007
Kun Gao
Abstract We calculated and analyzed the effects of temperature and crystallite size on the Raman properties of nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 by using the related models mentioned previously [Tang and Herman, Phys. Rev. B 43, 2299 (1991); Richter et al., Solid State Commun. 39, 625 (1981)]. The temperature dependence of the Raman spectra of two different crystallite sizes of anatase TiO2 were obtained. Careful measurements of the frequency shifts of Raman modes were carried out at different temperatures. Through fitting the experimental data, pure-volume and the pure-temperature contributions to the frequency shifts of the lowest- and highest-frequency Eg modes, respectively, have been calculated. The results indicated that strongly intrinsic anharmonicity arising from optical-phonon couplings was the origin of hardening upon increasing temperature for the lowest-frequency Raman mode. The phonon-confinement effect on this mode was analyzed and anharmonic shifts of optical phonons with two different kinds of crystallite sizes were also compared. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]