InSb Nanoparticles Produced by Spark Discharge Generation

We present the synthesis of monodisperse aerosol InSb nanoparticles of high crystalline quality using the spark discharge generation (SDG) method. Apart from successfully using metallic In and Sb electrodes, we demonstrate the feasibility of using pure semiconducting InSb wafers as electrode material. We investigated the influence of carrier gas on the quality of the size selected particles. We show that addition of 5% hydrogen in the carrier gas (nitrogen or argon) reduced particle oxidation and drastically lowered the compaction temperatures. Further we found an influence of the compaction temperature on the stoichiometry and crystallinity. While uncompacted particles contained excess Sb, the InSb particles reached 1:1 molar ratio after full compaction. The spark discharge method shows promise for generating large quantities of high-quality InSb nanoparticles with applications in e.g. optoelectronics and plasmonics, and the method may be extended to generate nanoparticles of other semiconductor materials. (Less)