title: Direct synthesis of nanodiamonds by femtosecond laser irradiation of ethanol.
abstract: Carbon nanomaterials exhibit novel characteristics including enhanced thermal, electrical, mechanical, and biological properties. Nanodiamonds; first discovered in meteorites are found to be biocompatible, non-toxic and have distinct optical properties. Here we show that nanodiamonds with the size of <5 nm are formed directly from ethanol via 1025 nm femtosecond laser irradiation. The absorption of laser energy by ethanol increased non-linearly above 100 μJ accompanied by a white light continuum arises from fs laser filamentation. At laser energy higher than 300 μJ, emission spectra of C, O and H in the plasma were detected, indicating the dissociation of C2H5OH. Nucleation of the carbon species in the confined plasma within the laser filaments leads to the formation of nanodiamonds. The energy dependence and the roles of the nonlinear phenomenon to the formation of homogeneous nanodiamonds are discussed. This work brings new possibility for bottom-up nanomaterials synthesis based on nano and ultrafast laser physics.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Chen-Hon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Nee
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Seong-Ling
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Teck-Yong
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Tou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Huan-Cheng
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Seong-Shan
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yap