Improved one-phonon confinement model for an accurate size determination of silicon nanocrystals

In this article, we show how the well-known one-phonon confinement model ca n be improved to determine the diameter of silicon nanocrystalline spheres from the optical phonon wave-number shift, even using a physical-meaning we ighting function. We show that the fundamental parameter is the knowledge o f the phonon dispersion. The accuracy of our approach is supported by exper imental data obtained by selective UV Raman scattering on nanocrystalline s ilicon thin films produced by size-selected silicon cluster beam deposition . (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)03316-2].