Determination of absorption cross-section of Si nanocrystals by two independent methods based on either absorption or luminescence
Abstract
Absorption cross-section (ACS) of silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) is determined via two completely independent approaches: (i) Excitation-intensity-dependent photoluminescence (PL) kinetics under modulated (long square pulses) pumping and (ii) absorbance measured by the photothermal deflection spectroscopy combined with morphology information obtained by the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. This unique comparison reveals consistent ACS values around 10(-15) cm 2 for violet excitation of SiNCs of about 3-5 nm in diameter and this value is comparable to most of direct band-gap semiconductor nanocrystals; however, it decreases steeply towards longer wavelengths.
Moreover, we analyze the PL-modulation technique in detail and propose an improved experimental procedure which enables simpler implementation of this method to determine ACS of various (nano) materials in both solid and liquid states. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.