Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. m.m.b.m.rashid@ncl.ac.uk and School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia
  • 2 School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. m.m.b.m.rashid@ncl.ac.uk
Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2016 Aug 03;18(31):21676-85.
PMID: 27430278 DOI: 10.1039/c6cp03775e

Abstract

Density functional calculations are performed for OH-, F- and H-terminated 4H-SiC 10-20 Å diameter clusters to investigate the effect of surface species upon the optical absorption properties. H-termination results in a pronounced size-dependent quantum-confinement in the absorption, whereas F- and OH-terminations exhibit much reduced size dependent absorption due to surface states. Our findings are in good agreement with recent experimental studies, and are able to explain the little explored dual-feature photoluminescence spectra of SiC quantum dots. We propose that along with controlling the size, suitable surface termination is the key for optimizing optical properties of 4H-SiC quantum structures, such as might be exploited in optoelectronics, photovoltaics and biological applications.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.