Direct Evaluation of the Quantum Confinement Effect in Single Isolated Ge Nanocrystals

Oded Millo*, Isacc Balberg, Doron Azulay, Tapas K. Purkait, Anindya K. Swarnakar, Eric Rivard, Jonathan G.C. Veinot

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

To address the yet open question regarding the nature of quantum confinement in Ge nanocrystals (Ge NCs) we employed scanning tunneling spectroscopy to monitor the electronic structure of individual isolated Ge NCs as a function of their size. The (single-particle) band gaps extracted from the tunneling spectra increase monotonically with decreasing nanocrystal size, irrespective of the capping ligands, manifesting the effect of quantum confinement. Band-gap widening of ∼1 eV with respect to the bulk value was observed for Ge-NCs 3 nm in diameter. The picture emerging from comparison with theoretical calculations and other experimental results is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3396-3402
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Volume6
Issue number17
DOIs
StatePublished - 14 Aug 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • band gap
  • germanium nanocrystals
  • quantum confinement
  • scanning tunneling spectroscopy

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