Electron-phonon relaxation and excited electron distribution in zinc oxide and anatase

Laser Synthesis and Processing of Colloids: Fundamentals and Applications

Driven by functionality and purity demand for applications of inorganic nanoparticle colloids in optics, biology, and energy, their surface chemistry has become a topic of intensive research interest. Consequently, ligand-free colloids are ideal reference materials for evaluating the effects of surface adsorbates from the initial state for application-oriented nanointegration purposes. After two decades of development, laser synthesis and processing of colloids (LSPC) has emerged as a convenient and scalable technique for the synthesis of ligand-free nanomaterials in sealed environments. In addition to the high-purity surface of LSPC-generated nanoparticles, other strengths of LSPC include its high throughput, convenience for preparing alloys or series of doped nanomaterials, and its continuous operation mode, suitable for downstream processing. Unscreened surface charge of LSPC-synthesized colloids is the key to achieving colloidal stability and high affinity to biomolecules as well as support materials, thereby enabling the fabrication of bioconjugates and heterogeneous catalysts. Accurate size control of LSPC-synthesized materials ranging from quantum dots to submicrometer spheres and recent upscaling advancement toward the multiple-gram scale are helpful for extending the applicability of LSPC-synthesized nanomaterials to various fields. By discussing key reports on both the fundamentals and the applications related to laser ablation, fragmentation, and melting in liquids, this Article presents a timely and critical review of this emerging topic.

Germanium Sub-Microspheres Synthesized by Picosecond Pulsed Laser Melting in Liquids: Educt Size Effects

Pulsed laser melting in liquid (PLML) has emerged as a facile approach to synthesize submicron spheres (SMSs) for various applications. Typically lasers with long pulse durations in the nanosecond regime are used. However, recent findings show that during melting the energy absorbed by the particle will be dissipated promptly after laser-matter interaction following the temperature decrease within tens of nanoseconds and hence limiting the efficiency of longer pulse widths. Here, the feasibility to utilize a picosecond laser to synthesize Ge SMSs (200~1000 nm in diameter) is demonstrated by irradiating polydisperse Ge powders in water and isopropanol. Through analyzing the educt size dependent SMSs formation mechanism, we find that Ge powders (200~1000 nm) are directly transformed into SMSs during PLML via reshaping, while comparatively larger powders (1000~2000 nm) are split into daughter SMSs via liquid droplet bisection. Furthermore, the contribution of powders larger than 2000 nm and smaller than 200 nm to form SMSs is discussed. This work shows that compared to nanosecond lasers, picosecond lasers are also suitable to produce SMSs if the pulse duration is longer than the material electron-phonon coupling period to allow thermal relaxation.

Relaxation of highly excited carriers in wide-gap semiconductors

The electron energy relaxation in semiconductors and insulators after high-level external excitation is analysed by a semi-classical approach based on a kinetic equation of the Boltzmann type. We show that the non-equilibrium distributions of electrons and holes have a customary Fermi-like shape with some effective temperature but also possess a high-energy non-Fermian 'tail'. The latter may extend deep into the conduction and valence bands while the Fermi-like component is localized within a small energy range just above the edge of the band gap. The effective temperature, effective chemical potential, and the shape of the high-energy component are governed by the process of electron-phonon interactions as well as by the rates of carrier generation and inter-band radiative recombination.