title: Production rate enhancement of size-tunable silicon nanoparticles by temporally shaping femtosecond laser pulses in ethanol.
abstract: This paper proposes an efficient approach for production-rate enhancement and size reduction of silicon nanoparticles produced by femtosecond (fs) double-pulse ablation of silicon in ethanol. Compared with a single pulse, the production rate is ~2.6 times higher and the mean size of the NPs is reduced by ~1/5 with a delay of 2 ps. The abnormal enhancement in the production rate is obtained at pulse delays Δt > 200 fs. The production-rate enhancement is mainly attributed to high photon absorption efficiency. It is caused by an increase in localized transient electron density, which results from the first sub-pulse ionization of ethanol molecules before the second sub-pulse arrives. The phase-change mechanism at a critical point might reduce nanoparticle size.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Xuesong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Kaihu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wenlong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Ji'an
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Yongfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu