Synthesis of highly oriented, single-crystal silicon nanoparticles in a low-pressure, inductively coupled plasma

Single-crystal nanoparticles of silicon, several tens of nm in diameter, may be suitable as building blocks for single-nanoparticle electronic devices. Previous studies of nanoparticles produced in low-pressure plasmas have demonstrated the synthesis nanocrystals of 2–10 nm diameter but larger particles were amorphous or polycrystalline. This work reports the use of an inductively coupled low-pressure plasma to produce single-crystal silicon nanoparticles with diameters between 20 and 80 nm. Electron microscopy studies confirm that the nanoparticles are highly oriented diamond-cubic silicon.