title: Thermodynamics of face-centered-cubic silicon nucleation at the nanoscale from laser ablation.
abstract: The thermodynamic nucleation and the phase transition of the face-centered-cubic structure of Si (fcc-Si) on the nanoscale are performed by taking the effect of nanosize-induced additional pressure on the fcc-Si formation under the conditions generated by laser ablation in liquid into account. The thermodynamic analyses showed that the formation of fcc-Si nanocrystals with sizes of 2-6 nm would take place prior to that of large fcc-Si nanocrystals, and the phase transition probability from diamond-like structure Si (d-Si) to fcc-Si is rather high, up to 10(-3)-10(-2), under the conditions created by laser ablation of an Si target in water. These theoretical results suggest that laser ablation in liquid would be an effective industrial route to prepare ultrasmall fcc-Si nanocrystals.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Instrumentation Science and Dynamic Measurement (North University of China), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shengliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Wuhong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yingge
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Shirui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang