Aerosol fabrication of nanocrystals of InP

Nanocrystals of indium phosphide, with diameters of around 10 nm, have been produced via an aerosol route. The method is based on the formation of mon odisperse indium droplets and the subsequent reaction with phosphine at ele vated temperature. The size of the final InP nanocrystal is self-limited by the size of the introduced size-selected In droplet. This size can be tune d carefully, thus this method allows a narrow size distribution of the nano crystals. The kinetics of the reaction of In to produce MP depends on the t emperature and the phosphine dow. Extensive high resolution transmission el ectron microscopy studies lead to a consistent picture of the process. Our approach opens the possibility for efficient production of size-selected se miconductor nanocrystals and it will allow new types of self-assembly and c ontrol of quantum dots.